The Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever!

This is one of my oldest and most trusted recipes. I am not sure where it came from because its been in my recipe scrap book for years and years. I started making this recipe in college and haven't looked for a new one since.

as you can see from the stains and notes, this recipe is well loved!

I don't know about your family, but we seem to accumulate brown bananas. Some weeks we will eat a whole bunch of bananas in a few days and the next week we won't eat any, resulting in brown bananas. I hate wasting food and the nice thing about bananas is that once they turn brown you can just pop them in the freezer and leave them there until you are ready to make banana bread or breakfast cookies, or whatever else you might need smooshed-up ripe bananas for.  

Like I said, I have been making this particular banana bread recipe for years and years. In that time I have made bread, muffins and mini muffins. I have mixed in walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips, and mini chocolate chips. I have thought about adding peanut butter and chocolate chips. I have thought about adding cocoa powder. I have thought about adding blueberries. I have thought about cutting the banana and adding pumpkin instead. I have thought about baking it in a cake pan and then icing it with cream cheese icing or chocolate, or Nutella, or even salted caramel! Oh so many culinary ideas! (What would you add?)

I have learned a few things after making this recipe so many times. First, do not over fill your pans or muffin liners! This batter will rise quite a bit. I learned the hard way with banana bread burning on the bottom of my oven. Fill whatever your baking pan is only about 1/2-1/3 of the way full. Second, make sure to check with a toothpick for done-ness (technical term) and check a few places when making bread. The bread will usually be a lovely golden brown and still gooey in the middle. I usually let it get a nice color and then cover with tin foil to finish baking through. Third, you can make this recipe with or without a mixer. If you have the arm strength/willingness to cream the butter and sugar the rest is a breeze. Forth, one banana equals about half a cup, so you will need roughly four bananas for this recipe. Fifth, experimenting with flavors is awesome! My favorite is chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips is making mini muffins. Sixth, shmere with butter or cream cheese and have some coffee. 

I really hope you enjoy this recipe. It the best banana bread recipe I have encountered.

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What mix-ins do you add to your banana bread?

XOXO,
Coco

The Best Banana Bread

• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 large over-ripe bananas)
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
• 1 cup chopped nuts, chocolate chips, blueberries, etc... (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three loaf pans, or put liners in muffin tins.

Mash bananas and mix with lemon juice to prevent browning. Set aside.

Cream the butter and the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until well combined. Beat in bananas.

Sift all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) together. 

Add the flour and sour cream to the butter alternatively, starting and ending with the flour. Mix well after each addition. (Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mix until combined. Add 1/2 of the sour cream to the butter mixture, mix until combined. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mix until combined. Add 1/2 of the sour cream to the butter mixture, mix until combined. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mix until combined.)

Fold in nuts, chocolate chips, blueberries, etc... 

Pour batter into greased pans or spoon into muffin cups. DO NOT over fill pans. Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes for loaf pans, 17-20 minutes for regular-sized muffins, 12-15 for mini-sized muffins, or until a toothpick that is inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean. If the bread has developed a golden brown color but hasn't baked all the way through, cover with tin foil and bake until done.

Paleo Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin! 

We are back to summer weather here in the Nation's Capital. Don't know what happened to the lovely, crisp Autumn weather we were having, but yesterday was only one degree away from breaking a record for highest temperatures for this time of year. 87 degrees is just silly for October. I mean come on.

Hot weather or not, I am still jumping head-first into fall. Maybe I won't be wearing as many scarves and sweaters as I would like, but I will be watching all the Harry Potter movies (along with all the other wonderful Halloween flicks) and eating as much pumpkin as I can!

Tuesday I made Pumpkin Pie Dip with NO refined sugar. That is some good stuff! A friend said it tastes like "Fall in dip form." and the hubby said "What is this? Its good!" Love it when I get those kind of reactions to my culinary creations, especially when they are semi-healthy.

Today, I was debating between pancakes and a quick bread. I am trying to stay away from grains as much as possible and that kind of limits the bread options. There are some really good paleo bread recipes out there, but I am very picky because many of them end up having too much of an egg texture for my tastes. I can't stand that. This recipe does not have that texture.

This is just what I wanted in a pumpkin bread. Its moist, flavorful, spicy, and nutty. It has a wonderful pumpkin flavor and it turned out so beautiful. I could not have been happier with the way this turned out. I had some cinnamon-honey butter in the fridge that just sent it over the top! I gave some to my parents and my aunt and they all thought it was amazing and couldn't believe it was grain free. Score! J loved it too.

I hope you take a chance and make this, especially if you are feeling a little iffy about the whole gluten-free thing. This is the perfect inaugural recipe to show you how un-scary gluten-free is and how YUMMY it can be. Let me know if you try it out!

XOXO,

Coco

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Paleo Pumpkin Bread
(original recipe from Paleo on Main)

• 1 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup arrowroot powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup mapple syrup
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

Topping:

• 1/8 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/8 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

All ingredients should be room temperature. Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease 1.5 quart bread pan with coconut oil.  

Combine wet and dry ingredients in separate work bowls. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and pour batter into prepared bread pan. 

Combine topping ingredients and spread on top of prepared batter and place on middle rack in preheated oven.  

Bake bread for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out from the center of the loaf cleanly.  Allow to cool in the pan and slice. Serve plain or smeared butter or creamed honey.