I’ve learned my lesson many times not to make recipes from restaurant or bakery published recipes. I think they try to make them not exactly right in the book so you still buy their product or when they scale down the recipe for home-use it does not translate. In the past, I have tried several recipes from books at the library and on the Food Network by owners sharing their secrets only to yield disastrous results.
But this one’s different! This one really did work! There were 450 – 5 star reviews on Food Network.com, so I figured I couldn’t go terribly wrong. This was the most moist banana bread ever. The recipe really does work and follow the method exactly to get a great, moist bread.
Bakery Banana Bread
1 loaf (or 1 small loaf and 3 baby loaves. I love using baby loaf pans!)
1 and 2/3 cups AP flour (health substitute: 1 cup AP flour and 2/3 cup whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup + 2 Tb. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil (health substitute: 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil)
3 and 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed (I used 3 very large bananas)
2 Tb. creme fraiche or sour cream or greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray loaf pan (or pans) with Baker’s Joy or line with parchment.
2. Sift dry stuff: flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
3. In a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the sugar and eggs for 10 minutes. Yes, 10 minutes. I put it on medium low because I wasn’t about to do this by hand. They should be light and fluffy at the end.
4. Drizzle in your oil (and applesauce if using). Mix in your bananas, creme fraiche (or sour cream or yogurt), and vanilla.
5. Remove your whisk attachment and fold in the dry ingredients by hand until just combined. Add walnuts and fold until it just comes together. (I think adding the wet to the dry might be easier though. Either way works.)
6. Add the batter to the loaf pan and bake 45-60 minutes. My baby loaves were done after 25 minutes.
Recipe from Flour’s Famous Banana Bread
