My favorite memories of my mom are the times we’d spend all day baking. One of our favorite recipes is after the cut.
[dropcap4 bgColor=”#4f134d”]T[/dropcap4]he trick to great banana bread is two-fold. First, you need really ripe bananas. The browner the better. Second, you need fresh flour and fresh baking soda. If you’re like me, your kitchen cabinets are filled with miscellany purchased when Outkast was still playing on the radio. This is no time for baking soda of an uncertain age. Baking soda of an uncertain age belongs in your fridge, sucking up odors.
[fancy_header bgColor=”#4f134d”]Ingredients[/fancy_header]
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- ½ cup shortening – this is important. Yes, you can use butter. Yes, you can probably replace some of it with applesauce. Shortening will give you the best results, however. Plus, it’s handy to have around if you need to re-season your cast iron.
- 1 cup sugar – I use white sugar, but I’ve made it with brown sugar, too. It comes out richer and a little darker.
- 3 over-ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon soda
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[fancy_header bgColor=”#4f134d”]What to Do[/fancy_header]
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- Preheat your oven to 275°
- Grease and flour one large or two small loaf pans.
- Mix your banana smash, sugar, shortening, milk and eggs. It’s okay to use an electric mixer at this stage, but you’ll need to mix in the dry ingredients by hand, so you don’t overwork the flour.
- Sift and measure the flour, then blend in the soda and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a third at a time and mix until moistened and free of flour globs, which are gross.
- Ladle the batter into prepared pan(s), leaving two inches or so between the top of the batter and the rim of the pan. This is a quick bread, so it doesn’t rise much, but it does need some room.
- For one large pan, bake for 2½ hours. For smaller pans, bake for 1½ hours. The bread is done when the top springs back when touched and the sides of the bread pull away from the sides of the pan.
- When the bread is done baking, set it on a cooling rack in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then tip the loaves out of the pans and let cool for an additional 20-30 minutes before you slice it. Ideally, you should let it cool on the counter for 3-4 hours, then wrap it and stick it in the fridge overnight. That really brings the flavors together. I’ve never been able to wait that long, though, so I won’t judge if you can’t either.
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Note – every single loaf of banana bread I’ve ever made or eaten has had a bit of goo on the top crust, even if the loaves come out of the oven looking perfect. It is, IMHO, the best part.
And just for giggles, here’s a Lily Allen song about hanging out with her mom.
16 replies on “Old School Banana Bread”
Is there anything any better for breakfast than a slice of banana bread made the day before, lightly toasted in the toaster oven and smeared with peanut butter?*
If there is, don’t tell me.
*Or Nutella but it’s just unfair to compare Nutella with anything else.
Banana bread didn’t exactly feature on my family’s menu growing up, but now I make smitten kitchen’s banana bread. It has cinnamon and nutmeg and smells and tastes heavenly. I also add tart blueberries, otherwise it gets uniformly sweet.
Ohhh, blueberries, what a great idea. Â I love Smitten Kitchen.
The family recipe I use for banana bread calls for margarine and it world or much better than recipes I’ve used that call for melted butter. Also, the best tip I’ve ever heard when making fruit or vegetable breads (like zucchini bread and banana bread, of course) is to avoid overmixing the wet and dry ingredients. If overmixed, the breads will be flatter and denser instead of having that nice “head” and fluffy texture.
Excellent advice! Quick breads only have a bit of soda or baking powder in them to help them rise, and flour is temperamental. If you over-mix, your protein strands (gluten) can get tough instead of tender, and you run the risk of baking a loaf of brick.
It’s worth noting that I learned this lesson the hard way. :)
I always add yoghurt to banana bread. Mmm moistness.
How much yogurt would you add to the recipe above? Â I’d love to try it.
I’d usually add about half as much yoghurt (by volume) as I have bananas. I’ve never made banana bread with shortening though so I’m not sure how that would affect it. Still, experiments are the best part of baking:) Â My favourite one was made using raspberry yoghurt. Nom nom nom.
I’d replace the milk with yogurt. With three bananas, this is already a pretty wet batter, I’m not sure it would hold up with more liquid. Like QoB says, though, it’s a lot of fun to experiment with baking. Try to keep your proportions of liquid to dry the same and you should be fine.
Yes, very good point. No need for both milk and yoghurt.
Mmmm banana bread. For the life of me I can’t think of what ‘shortening’ is, but I fully agree on the brownness of banana. I also add some fresh vanilla. And now I want to dig my face into a banana bread.
Lard, or solid vegetable oil. The stuff you use to make pastry, if that helps?
Hmmm ..Lard rings a bell. The recipe I use is in English as well, I see if it’s in there and if so how my mother translated it to Dutch.
My grandmother always called it Olio, but it’s just solid vegetable shortening. I imagine lard would work too, but vegetable shortening is probably slightly better for you than solid animal fat.
I bet a lack of shortening is why my banana bread is always kind of meh. I do add chocolate chips, though, because there are few things in life not made better by chocolate chips.