How To Make The Ultimate Banana Bread

Banana bread is the queen when it comes to classic quick bread recipes. It's sweet, thick, tender, customizable and dare we say moist. Banana bread is relatively simple and easy to make but surprisingly a lot of factors can take your recipe in different directions. There are hundreds if not thousands of banana bread recipes out there so we tested a ton of variations to bring you Tasty's ultimate banana bread. We're going to start with preparing a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan. Spray it with some non-stick cooking spray, line it with parchment paper and then spray it again. We'll set that aside and move on to browning our butter. Add the butter to a non-stick pan over medium high heat. Cook and stir occasionally until the butter turns amber brown and smells nutty. The process will take about three to four minutes but make sure you're watching carefully so the butter doesn't burn. Quick tip, brown your butter in a light colored pan so you can see the butter brown more clearly. Once you have that nice amber brown color, remove the pot from the heat and set aside to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes. Now that our butter has cooled, we'll add that to a large bowl along with our brown sugar. Using brown sugar instead of white sugar will add more of a caramel flavor and moistness to your banana bread. We're adding one cup here. Quick tip, if your bananas aren't extremely ripe, just add another quarter cup of sugar. We'll use a hand mixer to beat until evenly combined, about one minute. Next we'll add one egg and whip it with a hand mixer. This will help leaven and lighten the texture of the banana bread. We're only whipping for about three to four minutes because we only want a little bit of air. If we whip it too much, the bread will rise and then fall because it's too dense. Now it wouldn't be banana bread without bananas. For ultra delicious banana bread, you want those bananas to be mostly brown and slightly overripe, like these. Brown bananas are sweeter and have a more pronounced banana flavor. They're also easier to mash and will better incorporate into your batter. We tested a couple different ways to ripen bananas more quickly if you're ever in a time crunch. We baked them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. While the bananas did soften, they lost that caramelized banana flavor you get when you let them ripen naturally. They were also a lot less sweet, leaving the loaf tasting like it was missing something. We also tried them in a brown bag with an apple and it did nothing. In fact, only the apple ripened. The next day, we took the apple out and just let the bananas sit in the bag. They didn't ripen any faster than the ones we let sit on the counter. Simply put, the best way to ripen bananas is the old-fashioned way. Time. And trust us when we say it is worth the wait. For this recipe, we're using two cups of mashed bananas. We found that it's best to measure bananas in cups because they differ in size. One person's four bananas might equal two cups, while another person's bananas might only equal one cup. A fork is probably the most popular mashing method. It takes a little more effort, but it works great. If you're looking for something easier, try using a potato masher. If you're looking for a little less mess, you can actually mash the banana inside the banana peel like this. Add the mashed bananas to a medium bowl along with some full fat sour cream. Emphasis on the bowl. The reason we're using sour cream instead of milk, creme fraiche, or Greek yogurt is because sour cream adds moisture with a little bit of tang. The acidic properties of sour cream also help tenderize the loaf to give it that soft texture. Let's add a little vanilla extract and fold to combine. Let's move on to our dry ingredients. To another mixing bowl, we're going to add all-purpose flour, kosher salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. There are a lot of spice options you could add to banana bread. Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cardamom, and even ginger. But cinnamon is going to pair best with the dark chocolate we'll add to the batter later. Now that our dry ingredients are well combined, we're going to alternate folding the flour and mashed bananas into our creamed mixture. We want to start and end with our dry ingredients to avoid getting a dense loaf. We'll mix everything until just incorporated. We don't want to overmix. The batter won't be perfectly smooth and that's okay. There's some debate out there about whether to add chocolate or nuts to banana bread, but at Tasty, we are team chocolate for obvious reasons. We love using dark chocolate chips because they complement the sweetness of the loaf. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and we are ready to bake. Okay, we lied. We have one final step. We're going to sprinkle some turbinado sugar on top. This step is totally optional, but it's going to give our loaf a little crunch and texture. Drooling yet? Because we sure are. Now we can pop our banana bread in the oven. We're going to bake it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 60 to 70 minutes. You'll know it's done when you insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean. Check out that golden brown goodness. If only you could smell this through your screen. Wow. We're going to set the loaf on a wire rack to cool for at least one hour. Then it is time to dig in. We like to serve our banana bread hot, room temperature, or even toasted the next day. Enjoy it for breakfast, for dessert, or as a snack. However you wish to savor it, slathering on some salted butter is a must. Remember, when life gives you bananas, make banana bread. We can't wait for you to make our recipe. Let us know what you think. You can find this and more banana bread inspired dishes on tasty.co. Thanks for watching. We hope you found this appealing. And cut. And done.