Banana Banana Bread

I've made several banana bread recipes here and I always come back to this one, it is a wonderful standard recipe that you can build upon and customize to your liking. A few pointers... This is a DENSE bread, the last one I made I actually weighed on my kitchen scale and it came to just under 2 1/2 lbs! This probably due to the 2 1/3 cups mashed bananas; I generally use about 5 medium size bananas but have used a little as three and it still came out good. If you like a lighter cake or muffin type bread, look elsewhere. Mix the ingredients carefully; I use my mixer to cream the butter and sugar and incorporate the eggs, but for the bananas and flour mixture I use a wooden spoon and mix gently until everything has just come together. I also add about 3/4 to 1 cup of chopped walnuts. 350 degrees for 1 hour, 15 minutes works for me but it is extremely important that I watch where my oven racks are positioned, too high in the oven and the bottom will not bake correctly, too low and it burns before the middle it cooked through. I position my rack one notch lower than direct middle of my oven and it comes out perfectly. Test with a toothpick in several places for doneness so you don't mistakenly hit a banana piece and think it is underdone. I think that's it!

This banana bread was very moist, despite the fact that I didn't have enough bananas (I compensated for the remaining quantity with some applesauce). Five large bananas yielded less than 2 cups, mashed so I thought it would be helpful to note that this recipe would probably require 6 or 7 bananas.

Great recipe! Like others, I also added some spice (vanilla, cinnimon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice). I wanted to make muffins, so I put the batter into a muffin tin sprayed lightly with Pam. At 325 degrees they were done in about 25 minutes! The batter yeilded 12 good sized muffins that were moist and delicious! Definitely a keeper.

I have to say that if the bread seems dry and dense, chances are you stirred it too much, which is easy to do without even thinking about it. With sweet breads and muffins, you should always just stir to moisten. Never over-do it or else you will end up with a drier and denser bread or muffin.

Excellent recipe!! I added 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and brushed the top with a mixture of 1tbs water and 3 tbs brown sugar for a sweet crunch on top.

Very good. I altered the recipe to make it more healthy--used 1 1/2 c. flour + 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour; 1/4 c. butter + 1/4 c. plain applesauce; 1/2 c. brown sugar; added 1 tsp. cinn. and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. Took awhile for it to bake--about 70 min. Good way to use up old bananas!

Hi there! I'm not a big fan of banana bread, but we had three or four bananas wasting away in the pantry so I decided to give this bread a shot. I replaced all the eggs with EggBeaters, used whole wheat flour instead of white, instead of 2/3 the butter I used apple sauce, and added cinnamon, nutmeg, and cinnamon chips. I also sprinkled the top with a bit more brouwn sugar. I had no problem with it rising, and it cooked very nicely and actually a bit quicker than the recipe said! The color was gorgeous and the cinnamon chips made wonderful little cinnamony gooey spots in the bread. It was quite moist, too. I wasn't blown away by it, but then again I don't really like banana bread (prefer pumpkin bread, mmmmm!!!!!!!), but my mom said it was the best banana bread she's ever had and took some with her to work and everyone loved it! It was also very easy to make, so I'll probably make it again it we ever have ooky bananas. I also recommend that you replace some of the ingredients like I did because it makes it a lot healthier. Enjoy!!!

This recipe deserves 5 stars because it is quick and easy to prepare and is delicious with or without modifications. It takes about 5-6 regular size bananas to reach the amount listed--if I do not have enough bananas, I mix in other mushy fruit like apples and mangoes. Once I added 1 cup frozen blueberries and believe it or not it was absolutely incredible. This one is a keeper.

This is the best banana bread I have ever had, it is so dense and banana-y. I use less banana (still about 2 cups) when I don't have enough, and I use only a half cup of brown sugar, the bananas are sweet enough - they don't need so much sugar.