This was actually my first time baking banana bread – shocking, I know, considering how easy it is. I usually bake zucchini bread or zucchini muffins, but banana bread was another Father’s Day request, aside from the Fried Bread I made. Along with the loaf, I also made a second batch into muffins and added chocolate chips.
I used Alton Brown’s method and recipe from his book, “I’m Just Here For More Food”. The only thing I changed was instead of using a combination of all purpose flour and oat flour, I just used all-purpose flour because that’s what I had. I did not add nuts, but you can add walnuts, pecans, or almonds. Like I said, I added big, dark chocolate chips to the batch of muffins and they were exceptional!
Since I’ve never made banana bread before now, I am not sure how the batter usually comes together, but Alton says to combine the bananas with the sugar first using a potato masher. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, butter, and flavoring — and then add that to the banana mixture. Add that wet mixture to a large bowl containing the dry goods (flour, baking soda, and salt) and combine well – but do not overmix! Overmixing will change the texture. Breads and muffins should have a coarse, uneven texture inside – not even like a cake would be.
So here’s the mashing of the bananas with the sugar…(Use overripe bananas!)
Try to get it as smooth as you can, but you won’t get it totally smooth and that’s okay. The above shows how smooth I could get mine even with all my might!
If you are using nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in at the very end after you’ve combined both wet bowls together and added them to the dry ingredients. Remember do not overmix!
See the uneven texture and those big chocolate chips? Bliss.
Here’s the recipe! No mixer required…just a potato masher and a big spoon! 🙂
Banana Bread (adapted slightly from Alton Brown)
or Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients:
3 large or 4 small OVERRIPE Bananas
1 cup of granulated sugar
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1 stick or 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
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2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
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Optional: 1 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and place the oven rack a little higher than the middle position. (According to Alton Brown, this would be the second rack down from the top.)
2. Line a loaf pan with a rectangle of parchment paper so that the sides hang off the loaf pan a little so you can easily lift it out after baking. (Line the longer sides and grease the other two exposed sides.) Or you can just grease the whole pan, but I am a big fan of parchment paper! If you are making muffins, prepare your muffin tin with liners.
3. Place the bananas and the sugar in a large mixing bowl and mash them together with a potato masher until you can get them somewhat smooth.
4. Combine the melted and cooled butter, eggs, and almond extract in a separate, medium bowl with a spoon. Make sure you do not put hot melted butter with your eggs because you don’t want to cook your eggs! It needs to cool down a few minutes when you remove it from the microwave or stove.
5. Now add the egg/butter/flavoring mixture to your banana/sugar mixture and combine well with a large spoon.
6. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Remember do not overmix. (I sound like a broken record, don’t I? Does anyone even know what a record is anymore?? hehe)
7. If desired, fold in 1 cup of chopped nuts or chocolate chips.
8. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t overbake – banana bread should be moist. I probably should have taken mine out a little sooner than I did. After 50 minutes, it was still undercooked, but after an hour I think it was a little overdone on the bottom. Could have been my oven though! If you are baking muffins, bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Cool the loaf in pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. This is so easy if you use the parchment paper with extra sides as ‘handles’! If you make muffins, remove them immediately from the pan and cool on rack.
Keep the cooled bread or muffins tightly wrapped and they will last about 5 days at room temperature. (But I doubt you will have to worry about that!) If desired, you can wrap it tightly and freeze as well.
Dig in!
Zim on a Whim 