Everybody has a banana bread recipe, right? And most of them are actually pretty good. But for the Epicurious test kitchen team, good was not good enough. We wanted great banana bread, the won't-last-til-morning, bake-for-any-and-every-occasion kind. We wanted a moist, tender loaf chock full of pure banana flavor with a gentle sweetness. We began our quest for the ultimate batch by baking five of the highest-rated banana breads on our site and analyzing what we liked (and didn't like) about each one. Then it was back to the kitchen to create a Frankenrecipe with all our favorite components. After several rounds of testing, we created a recipe that we really (really) love. Here's how it came together:
Add extra dairy for flavor and moisture.
Our overall taste test winner was this recipe for banana bread, and we used it as a jumping-off point for our ultimate version. Some banana bread recipes include various forms of dairy, which we think improves both the flavor and texture of the loaf. Of all the creamy additions we tried (from buttermilk to mascarpone), we loved the zip of the sour cream used in the winning recipe. We added an extra tablespoon of the stuff to our version for extra moisture and tang. Why not? Sour cream is cheap—and way easier to find than mascarpone.
Ripen bananas in minutes.
Obviously, perfectly overripe bananas are essential to the success of this quick bread. Ideally the bananas should have yellow skins (no green!) with an even smattering of brown freckles. But we know that the urge for a fresh loaf of banana bread can be overwhelming at times, and you just can't wait a day or two for the bananas to ripen on their own. So get ready for instant gratification: We have a trick for ripening bananas for use in baking recipes that takes almost no time at all. Simply bake unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet in a 250°F oven until soft, 15-20 minutes. Let cool, peel, and start baking. (Speaking of bananas, it's no surprise that we preferred the recipes that used more bananas, like Aunt Holly's Banana Bread. Our recipe uses four pieces of the fruit for maximum banana flavor.)
Go dark with the sugar.
Ripe bananas have a wonderful natural sweetness, but a little extra sugar rounds out the overall flavor of the banana bread. Most recipes use regular granulated sugar, but we loved the richness the dark brown sugar brings to this recipe, so we incorporated it into ours, too.
Stir in crunchy nuts—but skip the chocolate.
We loved the crunch that walnuts gave this banana bread, so we made sure to add a hefty helping to our batch. When it came to chocolate, though, it was a tougher call. Inspired by this version with chopped dark chocolate, we tested our base recipe with just walnuts and with both walnuts and chocolate. Twice. The entire Epicurious staff was pretty evenly split into pro- and anti-chocolate camps. But ultimately, the food department felt that the chocolate detracted from the essence of unadulterated banana, while the walnuts added a toasty nuttiness and crunch that we found essential to that banana bread flavor. So, walnuts were in, and chocolate was out. For you chocolate lovers out there: If you must add chocolate, fold in 1/2 cup chopped chocolate into the batter along with the walnuts. Then call us. We want a slice.
