Best Banana Bread

I seem to have made a lot of fruit breads recently. Apple cake Wednesday, banana bread today! Some people like apples, and some like bananas, gotta try to make everyone happy! Personally, I am a big banana fan. I start my morning, everyday, with a banana. It could be with cereal, a muffin, pancakes or just milk. The main dish is ever changing, but the banana remains. Unlike some picky people, I will eat a banana at most stages of ripeness. From once it turns mostly yellow (green around the edges is okay) until it is almost overwhelmed with brown spots, I’m going to eat it. There is a line that I just won’t cross, that last banana inevitably turns completely brown. I won’t touch it and into the freezer it goes.

I have several single bananas in the freezer, waiting to be baked into tasty treats. I find that freezing the bananas leads to a creamy texture in the final bread. Freezing them slightly breaks down their cellular structure and makes them easy to mash (just be sure to let them thaw in a bowl). You could even buy some bananas just for the purpose of baking them! Toss them in the freezer once they turn yellow and a few days later they are ready for baking!

This particular recipe has its healthy quotient bulked up with its use of whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt. I also love to bake them in mini loaf pans, that way your serving looks so much bigger! And if you can’t stop yourself from eating the whole thing, you only had three servings… Excuse me now, I have to go eat a loaf of banana bread.

Best Banana Bread

Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion

2 Eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup mashed bananas (3 very ripe & dark bananas)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup Greek yogurt
¾ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare either one loaf pan or four mini-loaf pans by spraying with cooking spray. If your pans aren’t non-stick, also flour the pans.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil. Add mashed bananas and vanilla and stir until just combined. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture. Stir until completely combined. Add the yogurt and stir until no white swirls remain. Add walnuts and mix.

Pour batter into large pan or approximately one cup into each mini-loaf pan.

Bake. 1 hour for the large pan, 30 minutes for the mini loaves. Once a toothpick, inserted off center, comes out clean, remove from oven and allow to sit on a wire rack until cooled.  Pop them out of your loaf pan(s) and serve warm (or allow to cool entirely, wrap in plastic wrap, and feed to your coworkers)