Simple 6-Ingredient Banana Bread
This banana bread recipe literally never fails. Shortening makes it moist and tender, and it always comes out with a perfectly cracked top. It’s super easy to make and even easier to adapt.
Ingredients
- 375 grams brown bananas (3 medium or 4 small bananas)
- 200 grams sugar (1 cup)
- 240 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups, loosely scooped and leveled off)
- 95 grams shortening (½ cup)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Optional Additions
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon cinnamon sugar or turbinado sugar (to sprinkle on top)
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.
- Combine bananas, shortening, eggs, baking soda, sugar, and flour in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until well combined, about one minute. Scrape down the bowl and beater. Mix 30-40 seconds more. If adding any mix-ins (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.) stir them in by hand at the end.
- Pour banana bread batter into the pan, tapping it against the counter a few times to release air bubbles.
- If using any toppings (cinnamon sugar, chopped nuts, etc.) sprinkle them on top.
- Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes (70 minutes) until a toothpick or paring knife inserted into the center comes out clean (190°F doneness).
- Remove from oven and run a paring knife around the sides to release, then let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes. Turn the loaf out of the pan and let cool completely on wire rack before slicing.
RECIPE NOTES
- To make banana bread muffins, portion the batter into 12 lined muffin cups and bake for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it.
- To make mini muffins, bake for 13-15 minutes.
- If using defrosted bananas, discard any excess liquid in the bag and use 4 bananas instead of 3.
- You can replace some or all of the shortening with creamy peanut butter or tahini for a nuttier flavor.
- If your bananas are going brown faster than you're ready to use them, peel and freeze them in a bag. Defrost in the fridge overnight. When you defrost bananas, there will be excess liquid in the bag which you can discard. While the standard recipe calls for 3 non-frozen bananas, if you're using defrosted bananas, you may want to use 4 bananas to make up for the liquid weight lost in defrosting.
- I've given you a weight for the bananas but when I make this at home I always use whole bananas. If I have slightly too much banana, I don't worry about it. It works out just fine.