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. —the Editors of Cook’s Illustrated

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

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Method
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 Cooks Illustrated. All rights reserved.
© 2009 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.