There is certainly no shortage of banana bread recipes. What makes this one so delicious? The flavour is bold with banana, as this recipe contains a generous amount of bananas in the batter and there are no added spices. The liberal sprinkling of sugar on the top creates a delightfully crunchy and deeply caramelized top, which gives way to a moist and flavourful bread.
Classic Banana Bread
~ Adapted from Claire Ptak's The Violet Bakery Cookbook
6 bananas (approximately 500 grams), very ripe
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup (76g) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp dark rum (optional)
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
1 cup (138g) Flourist Sifted Red Spring Wheat Flour
1/2 cup (71g) Flourist Whole Grain Red Spring Wheat Flour (optional, see note above)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp (41g) sugar
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, mash 5 bananas well, reserving one banana as a garnish on top. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, vanilla, rum (if using), eggs and buttermilk. Add the mashed banana and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture until just combined and pour into your prepared pan.
Split the remaining banana in half lengthwise and nestle the halves on top of the batter, lightly pressing them in. Sprinkle 3 tbsp sugar generously over the top.
Bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean, the top has set and is deeply caramelized.
Comments
I made this loaf yesturday. It turned out perfect! I used a 10×4 in. glass loaf pan. An excellent pan for recipes that have a lot of batter. Two 8×4 in. pans would also work well. The longer and narrower pan allowed the loaf to rise perfectly and cook through without a problem. However, I did cook the loaf for 60 min. on the lower 1/3 of my oven.
I’m making another loaf today, as I gave away the loaf I made yesturday. ☺️
I know I won’t be disappointed when I finally get to relax with a tea and a slice of today’s banana loaf.
I’ve now made this twice and it’s been excellent both times. I use a narrower loaf tin (buttered, instead of parchment paper) so the bread rises high, then falls, but still looks normal. It’s very soft because of all the banana in it, but delicious. I also weigh the banana and find 450g-500g is about right. That equates to closer to 4 bananas than 5. Also, I only use 1 tsp of sugar on the top to carmelize the banana, as the bread is plenty sweet from the bananas it doesn’t need 3 tbsp. I cook it for 55-60 minutes.
Hi Regina! You are so right! We are going to retest this recipe and update it to include a weight for the bananas. Stay tuned and thanks for the note!
Would be helpful to have a weight for the bananas. Sizes vary.
The flavour of this loaf is…. amazing. And your flours make it shine!
One note: I made two loaves, one large and one mini. The large one fell in the middle too even though I cooked 15 minutes longer (see comments) and the smaller loaf did not. Will make several small loaves going forward
Hi Helle! I’m so sorry to hear that. In our experience when a banana breads collapses it’s usually because it was undercooked or it was taken out of the pan before it had enough time to cool down. I suggest baking for longer, even up to an hour and make sure a toothpick/knife inserted into the middle comes out completely dry. And then leave it in pan to cool.
I have made this recipe 3 times and every time it totally collapses within a few minutes of coming out of the oven even the latest time after baking it on convect for 55 minutes. Is the baking time possibly wrong?
Hi Belinda! We haven’t tried using flax eggs, but banana bread is generally quite forgiving so we think it should work. Please let us know how it turns out!
Thank you for the recipe. Do you think I can replace the 2 eggs with flax eggs?
Hands down the best banana bread I’ve ever made — and I’ve made a lot! Everyone who tried it loved the carmelized banana top and the overall banana flavour. The loaf stayed moist and luscious to the last slice. I do have two suggestions. First, if using a 9×5 or 8×4 loaf pan, you’ll need two. This recipe makes lots. Second, this loaf is so moist that in hot weather, after a day it might not keep at room temperature. Keeps fine well wrapped in the fridge.