Classic Banana Bread
I have a handful of recipes that are more near and dear to my heart than others. I genuinely love to cook most things and don’t often play favorites. But I think everyone has deeply-seated memories of sitting down for a specific dinner, or the sight of a treat on the counter that reminds them of being an excited 5-year-old all over again. The kind of recipes so well-worn everyone can recognize it by the scent wafting from the oven.
At the top of that list in my house is banana bread. It was my grandma’s specialty. Then my mom’s. Then mine. And now my oldest has been known to gather bunches of ripe bananas and make multiple loaves for his college roommates.
It is perfectly sweet, comforting, moist and beloved. I get requests from the boys if I haven’t made it in a while. And they have some internal timer that alerts them the minute it’s about to come out of the oven. They stand around the kitchen island and wait.
Because it’s always delicious. But warm? It’s irresistible.
I don’t think ours is necessarily all that different from other banana bread recipes. I just adore this one. I grew up on it. I still have the old handwritten (re: cursive) version of the recipe. It’s been written once, amended in the margin, and notated a bit more by me in my far-less-elegant handwriting.
After years of small adjustments by all involved, we’ve landed on a simple, almost one-bowl recipe that just requires some patience. Patience for ripening bananas, and patience for a decently lengthy bake time.
Cooking Notes
To start, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter together with 1 cup of sugar. Give a quick mix to 2 eggs and add them to the butter/sugar mixture, with one teaspoon of vanilla extract and two tablespoons of sour cream.
While the eggs, vanilla and sour cream come together, mash 3 ripe bananas. The more ripe the better. I typically let mine go until they are nearly black. Add the mashed bananas to the bowl and mix until the batter loosens. It won’t be completely smooth, which is fine. Don’t overmix it.
In another small bowl, combine 1 1/4 cup of flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Slowly blend this into the wet ingredients, until you have a thick batter. I prep a standard loaf pan with a little bit of cooking spray, then line the pan with a piece of parchment paper, letting the paper fall over the sides of the pan. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and gently smooth out the top.
Bake for 60 minutes. You can start checking at 50 minutes, but I can practically set my watch to the one-hour mark.
My family is not a “wait until it cools” kind of group. This is where my parchment comes in handy. I pull the bread out by lifting the sides of the paper, set the whole thing on a cutting board, and slice while it’s still warm.
Have my kids ever burned their mouths because they can’t wait? Absolutely. Has that stopped them from eating it straight out of the oven? Never.
And yes, they score this like most things I make. The last loaf landed at 17 out of 10. I’m biased, but after three generations of recreation in my family’s kitchens, this one earns the extra points.
Classic Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 3 bananas, ripe
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer
- Blend in eggs, vanilla and sour cream
- Mash bananas and mix in with wet ingredients
- In a small, separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt
- Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients until fully combined
- Lightly spray a loaf pan and line with parchment, letting the paper fall over the sides
- Carefully pour the bread batter into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top
- Bake for 60 minutes, until top is golden brown, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean
- Serve warm, or allow to cool as you wish
