I am always searching for a great banana bread and I think this one was my best ever! I had so many ripe bananas today I had no choice. These bananas were begging to be made into bread and it was a good thing I listened! So good! This is how I made it:
I lined my loaf pans with parchment.
Here are my mashed bananas. I had 2 pounds by weight. I like the bread to be heavy on the bananas but sometimes it is just too sweet so I decided to significantly increase the amount of lemon juice in the recipe. I also threw in the whole grated rind of the lemon. Even with that much extra, the lemon was still barely noticeable. I want to try increasing it even more next time to see how that tastes.
Cream the butter and sugars together until very light and fluffy.
Beat in flour mixture slowly and stop quickly once it is just mixed in.
Add the banana mixture and barely blend again.
Divide between the two pans.
Bake in oven.
I was so happy how this turned out! It has been a life long goal to get this perfect and this was perfection! So good!
I used an adaptation of a recipe from Southern Living called Nana’s Banana Bread. Here is my version for a single loaf. I doubled this since I had 2 lbs. of bananas.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 very ripe bananas (about 1 lb.) 1 lb. turned out to be about 4-5 bananas
Rind and juice from one lemon for a double recipe
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Sift together first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Mash bananas with lemon juice in a small bowl. (You want a little texture—like semi-lumpy mashed potatoes.)
2. Beat butter and next 3 ingredients at low speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer 1 minute or until combined. Increase speed to medium, and beat 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Add banana mixture, beating just until batter is blended (no more than 10 seconds). Pour batter into a well-buttered and floured 8- x 4-inch loaf pan, and place on a baking sheet. I used parchment lined pans which worked great for me.
4. Bake at 350° for 55 to 60 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to a wire rack, and cool 50 minutes. Store at room temperature up to 4 days.