Super-Moist Banana Bread

Behold the loaf.

I'm a cook, not a baker. But with how I cook, it's often difficult to remember exactly what I did step by step to recreate it in recipe format here. So, to get back into the swing of posting here (and to use up some bananas starting to go too ripe), banana bread it is.

Not one to leave well enough alone, I combined two recipes. A constant standby for a solid recipe is the Joy of Cooking, and their banana bread recipe (this version is nearly identical to the 1997 book version actually referenced for this recipe). But I've also been hearing great things about the Flour Bakery banana bread recipe, so I averaged out the two into what turned out to be a very successful loaf of banana bread.

If you're playing the comparison game at home, I evened out the amounts of flour and bananas, used two types of leaveners, upped the amount of spices, reduced the sugar, and went with oil and sour cream to work with the bananas to keep the loaf moist. And I kept out the nuts, since this is banana bread, not banana nut bread.

The banana bread cast.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 3 ripe, mashed bananas (yours should be riper than those in the picture)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 T sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-preparations:

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Line a 4"x8" loaf pan with parchment paper for easy extraction. No paper? Grease it with veggie oil.
• Mash bananas

Directions:

1. Perform your pre-prep (preheat, line, mash).
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and allspice
3. In a smaller bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until creamy and well-combined.
4. Beginning with the oil, mix the oil, vanilla extract, sour cream, and bananas into the wet bowl.
5. Being careful not to overmix, slowly stir in the contents of the wet bowl into the dry bowl and mix until completely combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the lined loaf pan, and place the pan into the middle rack of your oven.
7. Bake for approximately 45 minutes to one hour, depending on your oven and your crust crunchiness preference.

That's it. Simple. Done. And the best part about lining the pan is that you can just lift out the loaf cleanly, and not have to wash a loaf pan.

What could you do to this to put your own spin on it? Try this with some toasted walnuts, or some dried cranberries. Add more spices during the holidays to make a more seasonal bread, or play with different combinations of spices (I was this close to making chai banana bread). I'm also well aware that I like my banana bread less sweet than some, so you can also bring the sugar back up to a full cup.

To really test the mettle of this banana bread, I brought it to my dry, dry office. After five days of taking off slices of the bread little by little, I was left with a heel that I left out for science. At the end of about six moisture-sucking hours, I tried the five-day-old heel. While it was nowhere near its original goodness, it was actually still reasonably moist and pretty decent.

My poor banana bread. Left out for science.

Please be kinder to your loaf than I was to mine. But realize that if you aren't, your bread will still love you back unconditionally... for about a week.