Banana Bread
by the Editors of Cook's Illustrated
from Baking
Illustrated
(America's
Test Kitchen, 2004)
Makes one 9-inch loaf
Overripe bananas on the kitchen counter are an excellent excuse to make banana bread. However, many banana breads are flat, gritty, or heavy. Worse, some loaves taste only remotely of bananas. Good banana bread is soft and tender with plenty of banana flavor and crunchy toasted walnuts. It should be moist and light, something so delicious that you look forward to the bananas on the counter turning soft and mushy.
For best results, be sure to use a loaf pan that measures 9 inches long, 5 inches across, and 3 inches deep.
|
|
|
| convert | |
Ingredients |
| 2 cups | unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan | |
| 1 1/4 cups | walnuts, chopped coarse | |
| 3/4 cup | sugar | |
| 3/4 teaspoon | baking soda | |
| 1/2 teaspoon | salt | |
| 3 | very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups) | |
| 1/4 cup | plain yogurt | |
| 2 large | eggs, beaten lightly | |
| 3/4 stick | unsalted butter, melted and cooled | |
| 1 teaspoon | vanilla extract | |
|
|
1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl; set aside.
4. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
5. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (The bread can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
Recipe © 2004 Editors of
Cook's Illustrated. All rights reserved.
© 1999–2008 Leite's Culinaria, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of use.
[Raye
Tiedemann] I love this banana bread recipe, and I will make it again. I
enjoyed the ease of preparation and the aroma when I was mixing the batter.
My family really loved it, too. I will have to try it without the nuts
for my grandchildren, and I also want to see how it works in muffins.
The loaf was so tender, very good to have on hand for tea. I was
happy to have it on hand to serve to friends who were visiting from England.[Bonnie
Depew] This is my new Banana Bread recipe. I had tried to make changes
to my old recipe but never with these results. Like most quick
breads, this recipe is easy to put together. Folding in the wet ingredients
results in a really tender crumb, the kind you can pick up with the
back of your fork. Using melted butter (instead of vegetable oil like
my old recipe) gives the bread a dense texture and rich flavor. The
toasted walnuts add a nice contrasting crunch to the full flavor of
banana. It's also nice to know that this bread can be kept for three
days, but I doubt it will ever last that long at our house.[Duane
De Mello] A very simple, easy to prepare recipe that turned out very well. The
bread was moist and tasty, and quite enjoyable. It disappeared quickly.
On 6.7.06 S.J. wrote:This is an excellent recipe. I'm new to baking, and my friends, who liked the bread, think I'm putting lots of effort into improving my baking skills. Thanks.
On 10.15.06 M.H. wrote:I love this recipe! I have made it several times with excellent results. It's so moist and delicious.
On 2.17.07 C. wrote:This is a great recipe for those of us who hate creaming butter and sugar! It does need cinnamon and nutmeg for more robust flavour. Also, my version (completely delicious) doesn't look a thing like the picture here. It's much paler.
On 2.18.07 Isabella wrote:This is a very good recipe for banana bread. I haven't made every one out there, but this is close to perfect for me. I did use half whole-wheat flour and half all-purpose. It might have made it a bit denser, but not in a negative way. It's very easy to assemble and the cleanup's not bad at all. Overall, a great recipe.
On 3.25.07 Courtney Shea wrote:This bread was so good. I tasted it when it was not cooked and it was even better than when it was cooked! Mmm, mmm, mmm.
On 9.12.07 Amy wrote:Excellent! I was always unhappy with my previous recipe and could never get a large, moist crumb. While a spicier variation could be interesting, this bread recipe stands on its own quite nicely due to the strength of the prominent rich banana and walnuts.
