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
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.
SHARE THIS RECIPE