Banana Bread 101

You’ve had terrible banana bread, we all have. Who could tell Aunt Edna that her brick of bananas needed a gallon of milk to wash it down? Not me. She might have- bless her heart- gone with a recipe that called for creaming a good amount of butter with sugar before adding her other ingredients. Our secret to a nice, tall loaf of banana goodness without the heft? Using vegetable oil in place of butter and throwing in a little buttermilk for tang. As for what kind of vegetable oil to go with, try using olive oil- it’s got more fat and less processing than canola (and I promise that you won’t taste the olive). Try this trick to ripen yellow and green bananas in a pinch.
Print this recipeIngredients
Banana Bread
2 cups | All purpose flour | |
1 tsp | Baking soda | |
2 tsps | Salt | |
2 | Eggs | |
2 | Very ripe bananas | |
1-1/3 cups | Sugar | |
2/3 cup | Olive oil | |
1/3 cup | Buttermilk | |
2 tsps | Vanilla extract | |
zest | of 1 orange (optional) | |
1/2 tsp | Ground cardamom (optional) | |
1/2 cup | Finely chopped chocolate (again, optional, but really not) |
Directions
- Line a medium-sized loaf pan (about 9"x5") with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350F.
- Stir in the dry ingredients together until just combined.
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Mash the bananas with the sugar. Whisk in the eggs, oil and buttermilk and vanilla and all your optional flavors.
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Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the center no longer sinks when you poke it.