Banana Nut Bread

Banana Nut Muffins

This one’s a winner.

If you like your banana bread dense and bananaey and amazing, then get yourself ripening a bunch of bananas pronto. The riper the banana, the better the bread. Truer words have never been spoken.

(This recipe is special, FYI. The Husband and I baked these as the gifts to the 32 attendees at our small but special wedding, wrapping them in tea towels I finally settled on {from the Dollar Store!!}… it’s the recipe that I’ll keep forever.)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (packed)
2 large eggs
3 cups bananas (very ripe, mashed, about 7 medium)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
1. Preheat oven to 325° and grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans (or 18 big muffin cups).
2. Place nuts on a baking sheet and toast lightly in oven while it preheats (take out after 10 – 12 minutes, or when you can start to smell them). Cool nuts while you work.
3. In a medium bowl: combine flour, baking soda and salt.
4. In a large bowl: cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs, bananas and vanilla, beating at medium speed until thick. Scrape sides of bowl.
5. Add flour mixture and nuts, and stir on low speed until just combined… be careful not to overmix.
6. Pour batter into loaf pans (sprinkling a few extra nuts on top of the loaves if you happen to have any left), and bake for 60 – 70 minutes (until cake tester comes out clean). Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove to cool to room temperature.
Tips:
- Making muffins? Scoop into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes (until cake tester comes out just about clean).
- Use a potato masher to smoosh the bananas. As discussed, they will be very ripe and therefore easy to mash (don’t ruin this recipe with bananas that are less than 75% spotted, impatient baker), but the potato masher tool has improved the quality of my life since I started using it for this purpose.
- Throw in a cup of chocolate chips if you’re so inclined. I think you might be.
- Use a serrated knife for best cutting results.
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January 27th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | 1 Comment | Tags: Bananas, Breads & Muffins, Classics, Fruit