The Best Banana Bread.
Throughout the years I’ve tried at least 20 different banana bread recipes. Recently I’ve seen trends of adding in brown butter, and most standard recipes call for yogurt or sour cream, but, sometimes you don’t have the time to brown butter or you don’t have yogurt or sour cream regularly in your fridge (having ripe bananas is already a big enough ask). So, when I came across Jeremy Scheck's recipe for banana bread I was so excited to try it because I had everything on hand to make it. After making it a few times, like most recipes, I tweaked the measurements and made it my own. Most recently I started adding sourdough discard to it. Besides banana bread being a good vehicle to use the discard in so I don’t feel guilty about so much food waste, it gives the bread a very subtle ~something~ to it, keeps it fresher for longer, and adds some gut-healthy nutrients to a sugary and buttery bread (cake :)). I know that most people don’t have a sourdough starter laying around so I’ll include both recipes, with and without the starter. Next time you have some close-to-rotting bananas in your kitchen, don’t let them rot and make banana bread, you won’t regret it.
ingredients:
3 very ripe bananas
1 egg
3.5 tbsp oil (I use avocado oil)
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup granulated sugar
100 grams sourdough starter discard (optional)
175 grams all-purpose flour (200 grams (1.5 cups) if not using discard)
a pinch of kosher salt (I use diamond kosher)
1 tsp baking soda
a dash of cinnamon
4 oz of chocolate (I use the Guittard 65% cocoa bars roughly chopped)
a few tbsp of turbinado sugar
special equipment:
Method:
1. peel and mash the ripe bananas in a medium mixing bowl with a whisk, they should be ripe enough that they fall apart easily (I like to leave mine slightly chunky)
2. add in all your wet ingredients and mix thoroughly
3. add in all your dry ingredients, including the chocolate, and mix until combined (adding in the chocolate with the flour prevents over-mixing)
4. transfer into the greased loaf pan
5. using a knife or wooden skewer trace a line down the center of the pan (this will create a perfectly domed top that cracks in the center)
6. sprinkle the top with a thick and even layer of turbinado sugar for a sweet and crunchy top
7. bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour (I start checking with a skewer after 40 minutes)
8. once baked, let it cool in the pan for about 15-20 minutes before transferring it out and onto a wire cooling rack
9. if you can resist, let it cool completely, or go ahead and cut a big slice and enjoy!