Banana Bread
I’m eating a sliver right now. It’s only appropriate, ya know? Let me tell you, the crumb topping is a nice little surprise on the taste buds.
Last night, I came home from work, looked at TasteSpotting, and found this post—Banana Bread Day. I guess I missed the actual banana bread holiday. It was February 23. My bad. But I was inspired. There were 3 very ripe bananas sitting on my counter. “Perfect!” I thought to myself. And then I remembered, my husband loovvvees to put a banana in his protein smoothie after working out, which we were planning on doing later that night. He always tells me some mumbo jumbo about how the simple sugar in the banana helps your body to absorb protein faster. Yeah, yeah. Being the good wife that I am, I knew I couldn’t use all 3 bananas in the banana bread. But I’ve never made Banana Bread without using 3 bananas. And then I remembered seeing a recipe in my Mad Hungry cookbook that only called for 1 banana. (Yes I read my cookbooks cover to cover. Nerd alert!)
So, I tried the 1 banana, banana bread recipe. Not only was I a good wife for saving that banana for the husband, but also for having bread in the oven when he got home from work. (Patting self on back, someone’s got to do it.)
I shouldn’t go without mentioning—the 1 banana, banana bread recipe was great! I was worried, though. Would it even taste like banana bread? 1 banana! Really?! After comparing it to several other recipes, I noticed all the proportions were less. Less flour, less sugar, less eggs, etc, overall creating less batter. This is just what the doctor ordered. I have fought with quick breads and the oven for years now. I can’t seem to figure out how to get the bread cooked through in the middle without burning the edges and drying out 80% of it. Tips welcome. However, having less batter helped it to cook through without burning the edges. Hallelujah! The loaf isn’t as tall as I’m used to, but whoever said it needed to be? I’m down with short.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°. Some would butter their loaf pan now. I never butter my loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Stir in the melted butter and the buttermilk (or milk/plain yogurt combo). Add egg and stir until well combined. Add banana and vanilla. Stir until well combined. Spread the batter into pan.
- Make the crumb topping by mashing together butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Distribute topping evenly over batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 min, then allow to finish cooling on rack.
Notes
Now, I am a firm believer in letting your baked goods rest after they come out of the oven. Time after time, I eat treats right out of the oven and think "FAIL." I usually come close to burying them in the trash. Thankfully, I deny the impulse and wait until morning. Low and behold, it's wonderful. The flavors have settled in and the moistness has been restored. Rule of thumb: Exercise patience, and let your baked goods rest. Heck, I'm better well rested.
Recipe slightly adapted from Mad Hungry.
Mmmmm, it looks yummy!!! I don’t exercise much, but I’d have this!
The wheat flour will compensate
At least that’s what I tell myself.
This looks yummy….I am going to try it.
You will love it! I think I need to make another loaf already.
Haha, you’re such a good wife! One banana for banana bread…very impressive!
i love your blog and your food philosophy! i too am trying to be more balanced and not so extreme. thanks for stopping by!
I’m going to try this!
Let me know how you like it!
question: have you ever substituted the buttermilk for something other than yogurt? I’m trying to figure out how to make it with with what I have on hand…sweetened condensed milk? Is that too heavy? I’m not much of a baker…
Hmmm…I think you’re right about the sweetened condensed milk being too heavy and maybe too sweet. Do you have sour cream on hand? Or milk and lemon? You can add a tablespoon of lemon to milk, let sit for 5 minutes, and it curdles acting like buttermilk. Hope this helps! I’m interested to know how it turns out with the substitution.
have you ever tried using vinegar and milk ,,,I use this a lot and it work real well ,,,
1Tbsp of vinegar to 1 cup of milk ,,,, works everytime ,,, good luck
Ah, yes! I just tried this the other day. I was out of lemons. Works like a charm.
Its baking now! I let a cup of 2% lactose-free milk sit with a tbsp of vinegar (looked up substitution options…no lemon on hand). Also I’m baking it in a muffin pan…..excited to see how it will turn out! I’ll keep you posted….
How’d it turn out?!
Ok, so I did try one last night, but definitely the ones today are better….dense, moist, yummy! I cooked the muffins for about 35 minutes. The only thing is they are a little flat (I’ll have to try again today.) I warmed 1 up this morning with a smudge of whipped cream cheese….so good! Only problem I really had was with the topping. I think I waited too long…the butter was already starting to get soft. Oh well, it ended up inside the muffins, haha.
All in all they turned out delicious! Thanks for the recipe & advice!
Glad the turned out today! A shmear of cream cheese sounds so good! I read a tip the other day that says to bake muffins at 400 degrees. It helps them to dome when cooking. I would drop the cooking time down to 20 min and check. Thanks for keeping me updated on the cooking process! This excites me to no end! I love food way too much
I’m making this again! I tried another recipe & ir just does not compare! Love this one! Thanks!
Yeah! Glad you like it. Stay tuned—I’m posting another quick bread later this week.
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Bananų ir cinamono derinys tikrai vykęs, rekomenduoju [...]
Nice recipe
I am definately going to try this next time. The last version of Banana Bread I made was the below and that was quiet nice also.
http://www.wascene.com/food-drink/delicious-banana-bread-recipe/
Thanks for Sharing.
Kari
Thank you for posting this! I am moving soon, and was looking for a way to use the ingredients I had left over, which were not much. 1 c flour, 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar, and then the normal soda, powder, and vanilla. I had two bananas to get ride of, but not enough dry ingredients. This was the perfect fix! I used 1/4 c brown sugar to compensate for only having 1/4 c white sugar, and I used two tsp of vanilla since it’s so tasty. I added an extra half banana since I had it, and I can say without a doubt this is the best banana bread I’ve ever had! Thanks again!
I love that you’re baking while moving. You’re my kinda girl! Hope the move goes well and glad the bread was awesome!
Making it again! This is my go-to banana bread recipe & the only one I share with others. Love it! (By the way, now I always substitute the buttermilk with a sour cream/ lactose free milk mix.) Thanks again for this recipe!
Thanks for this recipe. I found it randomly while looking for a 1-banana bread recipe and it turned out beautifully – my husband and I polished it off within 24 hours and not less ONLY because we tried to restrain ourselves. It was moist, had a glorious banana flavour and baked perfectly. It’s my go-to recipe for quick banana bread now.
I am definitely going to try the recipe this weekend, and then I will post it on my blog, http://charliebakes.blogspot.com/.
Thanks for the recipe!
Charlie, 13 year old food blogger
http://charliebakes.blogspot.com/
Hey Charlie! Hope you love the banana bread! Can’t wait to read it. Link back when it’s up!
[...] easiest and fastest bake good to make on a busy night filled with cleaning. The last time I found this recipe in particular because it only required one banana. This time, like I said, I had three to use [...]
[...] a banana bread according to a recipe I found online that required only one banana, since that was all I had left. It was, more than anything else, a [...]
Veganized this! Hope it turns out as delicious as your orignal. I will let you know how it turns out!
This is how I remember banana bread tasting when I was a little girl! My bread came out flat, but that did not matter one bit as I ate one slice, than two, three, four! The only thing keeping me from eating more was that I made the other half for my neighbor.
Thank you for posting your recipe- oh yeah I usually never let my desserts cool first without sticking a fork in them: I let it cool over night and it was COMPLETELY worth the wait!
[...] from theFauxMarthas [...]
Thanks for posting this recipe, i can boast to my husband that i can be frugal and use the forgotten over ripe banana in our counter.
I made this for a get together for my sister so I didn’t get to try it, but the report was that it was salty. I’m pretty disappointed… Anyone else have this problem?
So bummed you had this problem! I haven’t heard anyone else report this yet. What type of salt did you use? I’ll clarify the recipe to use sea salt, which is what I typically use but is still semi-coarse.
i just wanted you to know that I’m in love with this bread. siriousely…. I think I’ve made it like 6 times (this coming from the girl who never makes bread.). thank you!!!
Emily
[...] Original recipe via the faux martha [...]
These were tasty. I did not have buttermilk or yogurt so I substituted some sour cream and milk. It worked out just fine. Thanks for sharing this with us.
[...] Yields one loaf; recipe from TheFauxMartha [...]