Banana bread is an easy baking project

Published 9:32 am Thursday, October 20, 2022

Banana bread is an easy baking project for any skill level. You don’t have to knead it or wait for hours to let yeast make the batter rise. (In fact, there’s no yeast in banana bread — that’s why it’s called quick bread!) You simply mix a few simple ingredients together, pour the batter into a pan, and bake.

Heat your oven and prep your loaf pan before you start mixing ingredients so the bread can go into the oven as soon as the batter is mixed. The leavening ingredients that cause banana bread batter to rise — baking soda and baking powder — are activated as soon as they become moist, so the sooner the batter goes in the pan and into the oven, the better. Speaking of ovens, invest in an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is calibrated correctly. An oven that’s too hot will bake the outside of the bread too quickly and leave the inside underdone.

Here’s one simple trick for making banana bread moist: Choose very soft bananas with brown or speckled skins. As bananas ripen, they get sweeter and softer, which makes your banana bread moister and more flavorful. Plus, they’ll be that much easier to mash with a fork or potato masher. What other baked good is actually better when the main ingredient has been sitting around for a while? Get our best banana bread recipes to make the most of ripe bananas.

BANANA BREAD

INGREDIENTS

cooking spray

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup butter, softened

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

⅓ cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Coat a 9×4-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a bowl.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add mashed bananas and beat until combined. Beat eggs into the butter mixture one at a time, fully blending each egg before adding the next. Stir vanilla extract and milk into the mixture.

Stir chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, and flour mixture into banana mixture until just incorporated.

Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Tap pan on the counter to release any air pockets.

Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour 10 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Let the bread rest in the pan for 15-20 minutes; remove from pan, slice, and serve.