Denim & Damask

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Melt-in-your-Mouth Banana Bread

Photo credit: Dontrey Britt-Hart

“I want a little sugar in my bowl

I want a little sweetness down in my soul”

— NINA SIMONE

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1-teaspoon baking soda
1-teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
¾ cup walnuts, toasted, chopped (optional)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour 9x5x2 1/2-inch glass or metal loaf pan.  Whisk or sift the first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl to blend.  If adding chocolate chips and walnuts to your bread, combine them in a small bowl; add 1-tablespoon flour mixture and toss to coat.

Beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until well blended.  Beat in eggs one at a time.  Beat in mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract.  Beat in flour mixture.  Spoon 1/3 of batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle with half of the nut mixture.  Spoon 1/3 of batter over.  Sprinkle with the remaining nut mixture.  Cover with remaining batter.  Run a knife through the batter in a zigzag pattern.

Bake bread until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. I recommend to start checking your bread around the 55-minute timeframe. Check with a toothpick to ensure the center is not wet, but be careful not to overbake. You don’t want dry bread. Turn out onto rack and cool.

Makes one 9-inch loaf.

Enjoy every moist, yummy bite! 

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

My Two Cents:

  • This recipe evolved over time with many years of trials and errors, mostly related to the number of bananas used to create a moist, but not wet, texture. It began with a single cup of bananas and a hit-or-miss loaf of banana bread. My solution: I increased the number of bananas to 4 – 5 mashed, ripe bananas, depending on the size, which is typically somewhere between 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups of mashed bananas. The moist, melt-in-your-mouth slices of yumminess are worth the few extra minutes of baking time. Trust me. This bread rarely makes it 24 hours in our kitchen.

  • You can double the recipe for a large Bundt pan.

  • Because we have nut allergies in our home, I rarely add the nuts, but often add dark chocolate chips. Plain or embellished, it’s delish with a hot cup of tea or coffee or an ice-cold glass of milk.

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