The best banana bread recipe

Best banana bread!

Oh how the world has changed since I published my last article only 3 weeks ago, friends! I sometimes forget the situation we’re all going through right now for a few seconds and when I remember again, I am just as shocked as ever.

How are you? How have you been spending your days? Are you cooking and baking much more than usual like I am? Are you feeling anxious? Do you have someone to talk to? We will get through this, I promise. We will be able to hug our loved ons and travel again and go out and support our favourite restaurants. We will. We just have to hunker down for a while and wait this crisis out. So please stay safe at home. And while we do that, there’s always cake!

I am unfortunately allergic to bananas, but only in their raw form, thankfully. Which means I almost never have bananas at home but I just so happened to have 3 on my counter this week. I couldn’t eat them so I let them ripen and I, too, got on the banana bread bandwagon that’s been going around social media these days. My recipe is based on Dominique Ansel’s, which you can find on his Instagram. I made a few changes, under the professional patronage of Kitchen Heals Soul, who is harbouring a slight obsession for banana bread at the moment. I cut the sugar to only one cup (1/2 white and 1/2 brown), used only 2 eggs and omitted the baking soda because I didn’t have any but increased the baking powder to 2 tsp. I think this is my new favourite banana bread recipe. It’s so moist and flavourful!

This banana bread is so moist and flavourful

Best banana bread recipe

Ingredients

200g (1 cup) sugar (50% white / 50% brown)
250g (2 cups) All Purpose flour
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas, peeled & mashed (about 300g)
200g unsalted butter, melted

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Prepare your pan by buttering and flouring the sides. I used an 8.5”x4.5” loaf pan.
Weigh your dry ingredients in the same large mixing bowl and mix.
Add the mashed bananas and eggs and mix well with a spatula.
Add the melted butter and mix until it’s well incorporated.
Pour the batter in the pan, place it in the oven and check on it after about an hour. Mine took about 70 minutes to bake. Test with a cake tester or sharp knife.
Remove the cake and let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes on a cooling rack before removing it from the mold.
This is the hardest step! Let it cool before slicing it. I failed this step miserably and I ate a warm slice slathered with a thick slab of salted butter.

Baker’s tip: If you have an extra banana, slice it lengthwise and place it on the top of the cake before baking it for a pretty presentation that will look something like this.