Editors of Cook’s Illustrated | Baking Illustrated | America’s Test Kitchen, 2004 | Makes a 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. A good banana bread recipe turns out a soft and tender loaf 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.—Editors of Cook’s Illustrated
LC Bananas for Banana Bread Note: We realize you probably already have a batter-splattered banana bread recipe, one that was, quite probably, lovingly handwritten on a recipe card or the back of an envelope by your mom or grandmother in her charming, if wobbly, longhand. And one could argue that the best recipe is the one you grew up with–although we suggest you refrain from passing judgement until you try this version of the classic. And if you’re rueing the fact that you can no longer make this for yourself or someone else because of its gluten situation, rue no more; instead, bake up a batch of our gluten-free banana bread.
Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
- 1 1/4 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 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 (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for the pan
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Want it? Click it.
1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and let cool.
3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl.
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.)
- Lemon Coconut Quick Bread from Farm Girl Fare
- Cranberry Walnut Bread from Elana”s Pantry
- Walnut and Raisin Coffee Cake from Leite’s Culinaria
- Sweet Potato Breakfast Bread from Leite’s Culinaria
Banana bread recipe © 2004 Cooks Illustrated. Photo © 2004 Carl Tremblay. All rights reserved.
LC
on 
LC to your 
[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.
[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.
This is very similar to a recipe I have, and for mine, at least, muffins turn out very well as do any other shape–loaves, 9-by-13, etc. (My favorite is a bundt!) The baking time will be different, but don’t worry too much about it, as your nose will alert you when it’s coming along. As with the loaves, test with a toothpick.
This cake was fantastic, really moist with a tender crumb. Great flavour. I used half whole-wheat flour and half all-purpose. I also added some Callebaut chocolate wafer disks to the batter. The cake was awesome!!
[Annie Leslie] This recipe was fantastic. I took some to a friend that just had a baby and it was great to have a tasty homemade treat in the house. This banana bread is super easy and is just as simple as if you made it from a box of cake mix. It was a great way to use up the old bananas that I throw in my freezer for occasions like this. To give the bread a little extra sweetness, I greased and sugared my pans instead of flouring them. I think the yogurt was a great addition to the bread and made it very moist. It would also be interesting to try different flavors of yogurt–like vanilla, etc.–to give the bread a hint of other flavors. Keep an eye on the loaves, as the baking time was off a little bit, for me. It definitely took a full hour. I used two different loaf pans–one was taller and the other was flatter and wider. Both required extra time (the recipe calls for 50 minutes).
This is a great recipe! I altered it slightly, and it was the best banana bread I have ever had! I made a double recipe to yield 2 loaves. I used 3 cups white flour, 1 cup whole-wheat flour. I also substituted part of the white sugar with brown sugar (1 cup white, 1/2 cup brown) which added a nice richness. The last ingredient change I made was to add 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. I also creamed the butter and sugar together first, then added the rest of the wet ingredients. I would make this again any day! Simple and delicious!
Try freezing the bananas as they get too ripe, then defrosting in a bowl or measuring cup. They get soooo sweet this way and are totally mushy and easy to mix into the batter.
Thank you for the tip, Marit.
This is almost the banana bread I make, the only difference is mine calls for buttermilk instead of yogurt and 1/4 cup less nuts, which I chop really fine. It is a delicious, moist, and tender bread!
A good substitution idea. Thank you Susan.
I’m going to have to try this, although I’m skeptical. I do, in fact, have a beloved spattered recipe card from my husband’s grandma, who never baked anything decent, except, it seems, this banana “cake.” I’ve tried all the recipes I can get my hands on, and hers tops the cake (*snicker*). I’m intrigued here because the quantities are very similar, though hers lacks yogurt, has less butter and more sugar. Will report back soon!
Ashley, do report back. Now I’m curious!
This IS a good banana bread recipe! Pretty easy to make and I can see learning to make it from memory since the measurements are pretty straightforward. I have to admit, I used chopped hazelnuts instead of walnuts (don’t know where my walnuts went!) and it still came out great. I also ran out of AP flour, so the majority was white whole wheat flour – I have to say I can’t tell the difference.
As I was eating it, I was thinking it wasn’t better than the banana bread recipe with candied ginger on your site, except that’s not a banana bread recipe! It’s Carrot Zucchini bread!
So, now I want to make this with some candied ginger. And then maybe I’ll declare it the best. =)
Leanne, thanks for letting us know your thoughts on both recipes! And I can’t wait until late summer season, I think I’m going to have to make that carrot zucchini bread very soon…
My recipe, that I have made for years, has toasted pecans.
I, too, have a favorite recipe that I’ve made for years. I typically don’t bother to make other recipes because I think mine is so delicious, but the note about reserving judgment convinced me to make this one. I was disappointed with this recipe; the flavor was a bit shallow. My recipe has a lower proportion of flour to bananas, a bit more sugar and butter, but no yogurt. It comes out much darker, moister and a richer banana flavor. Interestingly, my recipe calls for a confectioner’s sugar icing that I never add because the bread is already so moist.
Ellen, I’m so sorry that you didn’t enjoy the recipe as much as you thought you may. That sometimes happens with recipes we’ve made again and again and that are so ingrained in our repertoire. (No one can make stuffed quahogs like my mom!)
Here’s the big question? Would you be willing to share your recipe with our readers? You’ve got me all kinds of curious.
Tried this banana bread recipe yesterday and it came out FABULOUS…moist and delicious, it came together easily and baked beautifully, I couldn’t help but admire it as it was cooling on the rack. Thanks for sharing another great recipe, LC!
Thanks for letting us know how niftily the recipe came together for you, Nicholle C.! As for the sharing, that’s just what we do…