Name: The Best Banana Bread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 75 min
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients: 3 large (about 1.5 cups) very ripe bananas, mashed; 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter; 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 2 large eggs; 1/3 cup sour cream; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tsp baking soda; 3/4 tsp kosher salt; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

The Best Banana Bread

Prep

15m

Cook

60m

Total

75m

Bigly says

We need to talk about banana bread. The most lied-about baked good in this country, and I'm fixing it today. Most banana bread out there is dry. It's bland. It tastes like a banana once walked past the kitchen and that's the closest the recipe got. A national embarrassment. Cookbook authors hate this trick — and I'll tell you the trick — they hate it because it's not theirs, it's MINE, and they're going to be sour about it. Let them be sour. We've got bread to bake.

First, the bananas. The bananas have to be BLACK. Pitch black. So ugly you'd throw them away if you didn't know better. My grandmother taught me this — tough woman, didn't hand out compliments, ran the kitchen like a small republic — and she said yellow bananas are for breakfast and black bananas are for BAKING. Period. Every time someone reaches for a yellow banana to put in bread, a tiny corner of the universe weeps. The sugars have to do their work. The fruit has to give up. THAT is when you bake with it.

Second — and I'm giving you two tricks here, which is enormous value — second is sour cream. A real dollop. Full-fat. This is not the place to be brave with low-fat. The sour cream keeps the loaf tender for FIVE DAYS, which sounds impossible, I had a guy with a PhD in food science explain it to me, took him 90 minutes, the man was sweating by the end — but the gist is the fat coats the gluten, the acid relaxes the crumb, and the loaf stays soft like the day you pulled it out. Two tricks. One loaf. Game over.

Ingredients

3 large (about 1.5 cups)very ripe bananas, mashed(black-spotted, almost embarrassing-looking, that's when they're ready)
1/2 cup (1 stick)unsalted butter
3/4 cuplight brown sugar, packed
1/4 cupgranulated sugar
2large eggs
1/3 cupsour cream(full-fat, this is not the time for diet anything)
2 tspvanilla extract
1 3/4 cupsall-purpose flour
1 tspbaking soda
3/4 tspkosher salt
1 tspground cinnamon
3/4 cupwalnuts, toasted and chopped(optional, but you should not opt out)

Steps

1
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and line it with a parchment sling.
2
Brown the butter: melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, swirling occasionally, until the milk solids turn golden brown and the butter smells nutty, 4-6 minutes. Scrape into a large bowl (including the brown bits) and let cool 5 minutes.
3
Whisk the brown sugar and granulated sugar into the brown butter.
4
Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then the mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla.
5
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
6
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet with a spatula, just until no streaks of flour remain. Stop here. Do not overmix.
7
Fold in the toasted walnuts.
8
Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top.
9
Bake 55-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs. If the top browns too fast, tent with foil at the 45-minute mark.
10
Cool in the pan 15 minutes, then lift out using the parchment sling and cool on a rack at least another 30 minutes before slicing.

One more thing

That's banana bread. Real banana bread. Banana bread that tastes like a banana, which sounds obvious, and yet half the loaves in this country get it wrong, which is honestly impressive in a sad way. You slice it thick. You butter the slice. You toast it the next morning and the kitchen smells like a bakery — your bakery, the one you run now, the BIGLY bakery, congratulations on the promotion. Wrap the leftovers in foil. It will keep five days. It will not make it five days. It never does. Save me a piece.