I come from a long line of bakers. My Mom always made wonderful pies. My Grandmother was a Home Economist and her specialty was definitely desserts! I think she spent 80 percent of her life in her kitchen creating wonderful sweet treats! I don’t remember a lot about my Great Grandmother, but I do remember visiting her house and knowing I could always find yummy cookies stashed away in a cookie tin in her kitchen pantry. So it seems fitting that my very first blog post would be something sweet, comforting and a food that was ubiquitous in my childhood.
Banana Bread is known as a quick bread, which basically means it uses fast acting leavening agents like baking soda and baking powder. Think muffins, corn bread, pancakes, biscuits, scones…..these are all examples of this same principle of baking. These are all items that don’t use yeast and therefore do NOT require a waiting or resting period for the yeast to activate. What does this mean for you? Basically, you can have baked deliciousness in your mouth in short order!
The one little quick caveat to this is using gluten free flour. Because I’ve written this recipe for both all purpose flour and gluten free flour I feel like I need to do a little explaining! When making a quick bread with all purpose flour, the general method is to gently mix the wet ingredients with the dry JUST until they’re mixed together. The batter will look lumpy, but this will create the best texture. However, when using gluten free flour, it is best to fully incorporate the wet and dry ingredients together AND give them a little time to just rest together, just a few minutes, not long. This allows the starches to fully hydrate which in turn adds to a more desirable texture. Confusing? Maybe slightly! But here is the good news, with just a little tweaking of technique you can make amazing banana bread with or without gluten! Hurray!
The key, of course, to Banana Bread is some nicely over-ripe bananas. Something that I would normally find utterly repulsive to eat becomes like liquidish gold when baked into banana bread. And if you have some over -ripe bananas on hand, but don’t have time to use them? Your freezer is your friend. Just peel them, cut them up, place them in a baggie ready for your next batch of banana bread. And you thought frozen bananas were only good for smoothies……silly you.
You can make banana bread in a mixer or in a Cuisinart, but honestly, if I’m feeling like I just don’t want to clean one more kitchen machine, often times I just mix it up in a bowl. One bowl, one spoon, one loaf pan, boom you’re done and popping that bread in the oven.
Banana Bread is good for so many reasons!
- Classic comfort
- Easy! Mix up the batter in a bowl, pour into a loaf pan, bake!
- It makes your house smell sooooooo delicious.
- Easily shareable! If you’re going to make one loaf, why not make two?
- It’s transportable! Going on a picnic? Camping? Take the Banana Bread!
- It freezes great! You can have one loaf for now and one for later.
- We call it Banana Bread, but really, isn’t it more like cake?? This just makes me feel like I’m getting away with something good!
For the benefit of you and everyone in your household (and beyond), I think you should make your way to your kitchen soon and whip up a loaf (or two!) of delicious classic banana bread.
Mom’s Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 Bananas ripe
- 1/2 cup Coconut oil or other neutral oil like corn or canola
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 Eggs slightly beaten
- 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 cups All purpose flour can substitute gluten free flour , I like Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour
- 1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum* only necessary when making GF and your GF flour mix doesn't already include xanthum gum
- 1/2 cup Chopped Nuts I prefer walnuts or pecans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a mixer, mash the bananas.
- Add the oil (if using coconut oil heat to a liquid form and then cool before adding), sugar, vanilla and slightly beaten eggs. Stir to blend well.
- Add the dry ingredients (soda, flour and xanthum gum if needed). If you are using all purpose flour, mix just until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet. Not over mixing is the key to a good quick bread with all purpose flour. If however you are using gluten free flour your method is to fully mix the dry ingredients in to the wet.
- Gently stir in chopped nuts. If you are making your bread with gluten free flour, cover your bowl with plastic wrap and allow your batter to rest for 20-30 minutes.
- Pour batter into a greased loaf pan.
- Bake at 350° 60-80 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in pan for at least 15 minutes before inverting bread onto a rack to cool completely.
- Slice and enjoy!
- *Xanthum gum may be needed if the gluten free flour you are using does not already contain this ingredient. Please check your flour label. I have been using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour with excellent results. This particular flour blend already includes xanthum gum.