Best Banana Bread

There are lots of recipes out there for dressed up or added-to banana bread (chocolate chips, caramel, strawberries, etc.), and there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes you just want a slice of good, old-fashioned banana bread. There are also lots of great banana breads out there....this one is my best. 

Sweet, moist, and fragrant, this deeply-flavored banana bread will win a place in your recipe box.

My Best Banana Bread  Print Recipe

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups very ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of a 9 X 5 loaf pan (or two 8 X 4 pans).
2. In a large bowl, mix sugars and butter with an electric mixer on low until smooth. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat on medium until well combined.
3. Combine flour, soda and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine. Stir in nuts.
4. Pour flour mixture into banana mixture and fold in by hand, just until moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake for about 1 hour and 10 to 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean (a few moist crumbs are OK). Times are for 9 X 5 loaf. You may have to adjust time for 2 smaller loaves.
5. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Using a thin knife, loosen sides of bread from pan and remove loaf from pan onto cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing. Store tightly covered. May be even better the next day. Keeps well for about 4 days.

Fresh out of the oven

This was adapted from an old Gold Medal Flour recipe that my mom has made ever since I can remember. I tweaked it slightly, replacing part of the granulated sugar with brown sugar, and using syrupy frozen bananas. It can be made with regular ripe bananas, of course.

Cook's Notes: I used 3 large bananas that had been frozen (whole and unpeeled) and then thawed. To do: put very ripe, unpeeled bananas into a zip lock freezer bag, press out all the air, and freeze. Bananas will turn completely black, but they're fine- it's just the peels. When ready to use, leave bananas in bag and thaw on counter or in fridge overnight. Don't peel until ready to use. Thawed bananas will be soft and liquidy, and you'll think, "eeuuww". Peel bananas over a bowl and use all of the banana pulp and juices. They are a little darker than fresh, but the sweet banana taste is perfectly intact.  

About 55 minutes into baking, the loaf had browned enough, so I rotated it and turned the heat down to 325 degrees for the rest of the baking time. 

My Best Banana Bread may have been taken to some of these fun parties!


You may also enjoy Homemade Pie Crust:

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