Easy Peasy Deliciously Moist Banana Bread

Bananas are destined, IMHO, to become nothing other than the best version of bread there is – Banana Bread!

I often find myself buying a bunch of bananas, placing them just out of sight from my family, and patiently waiting several days until they become perfectly overripe, mottled with big, dark spots of brown and black and smelling suhweeeeet. Yep, that’s my thing. I have a good excuse – banana bread is the best! It’s easy to put together, it uses up perfectly good fruit that you might otherwise throw away, it bakes up ultra moist, and it tastes heavenly, especially slathered in creamy butter. Yummmmmmmmmm.

Lots of friends tell me they have the best banana bread recipe that’s been in their family for generations. Now, it’s not that I don’t believe them, it’s just that for me, banana bread is pretty straightforward and doesn’t require fancy schmancy ingredients, so really, how many different versions of this so-called best been-in-my-family-forever recipe could there really be?! It’s one of those recipes that shouldn’t be fooled around with too much, in my opinion. Of course you can add in walnuts, you can add in chocolate chips, or if you’re feeling a little wild and crazy you can even throw in walnuts and chocolate chips. But at the end of the day, simply put, banana bread should be nothing more than simple, straightforward, easy and oh so delicious.

Here are the highlights of what makes this recipe so awesome:

• Minimal ingredients, nothing fancy
• This really could be a one-bowl recipe because you mix the wet ingredients then dump in the dry (no need to mix those together in a separate bowl ahead of time) however, you do have to mash the bananas separately… So it’s a two-bowl recipe which is still pretty darn nice
• Takes just a few minutes to put together and pop in the oven
• Uses up fruit you may have thrown away anyway

A couple of tips for this recipe:

• To mash the bananas, simply place the peeled bananas in a bowl and mash with a fork. No fancy potato masher or other equipment needed. I like to leave some pieces of banana in there – feel free to mash to whatever consistency suits you best!
• I use an 8×4 loaf pan, whereas I’ve seen many other recipes call for 9×5. This isn’t the hugest of deals, but my personal preference is to have a taller loaf of banana bread rather than a shorter, denser loaf. Feel free to use whichever size you have on hand
• My daughter is allergic to nuts (plus Bryant and I don’t care for them much in our banana bread) so I do not include them as an ingredient. You can add in 1/2 cup chopped nuts or even 1/2 cup (or more if you’re feeling wild and crazy!) of chocolate chips at the very end before you pour the batter into the loaf pan. I would recommend folding the nuts or chips into the batter rather than mixing them in with your mixer.

I hope you’ll find that my recipe is as good in its simplicity as I do. Now, if you really, honestly have another version that is mind-blowing, please do let me know! I would love to be proven wrong. In the meantime, enjoy this version 🙂

And, if you’re tempted to try your hand at yeast breads, check out my Classic Easy Amish White Bread Recipe. It’s super simple and a great intro to baking heavenly bread at home!

Easy Peasy Deliciously Moist Banana Bread

Sweet and warm just out of the oven, there’s nothing better than the taste and aroma of freshly baked, homemade banana bread.

• Author: Kim | kickassbaker.com
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Yield: 1 loaf 1x
• Category: Bread
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: American

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups mashed banana
• 1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup full-fat sour cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8×4 loaf pan with butter and set aside
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended and smooth. Stir in the bananas
3. Add to the bowl the flour, baking soda and salt, mixing until just combined. Add in the sour cream and blend well
4. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool (if you can bear to wait) and dig in!

Notes

• Once completely cool, wrap the loaf tightly with plastic wrap and store at room temperature up to 4 days
• If you have leftovers (doubt it!), store them tightly wrapped in plastic wrap in the freezer. Not sure for how long, since this has never happened to me, although I’m sure it’ll keep for at least 3 months

Keywords: Easy Moist Banana Bread with sour cream

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