Black banana bread
Don't throw them out. One-bowl banana bread for black, overripe bananas: mashed with a fork, melted butter, no mixer.
Why it works: Overripe bananas are the best for banana bread, and melted butter gives it its flavor; everything mixes in one bowl with a fork and a spoon.
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 medium very ripe bananas, peeled (about 1¼–1½ cups mashed). The riper the better: peels at least half browned.
- ⅓ cup (76 g) butter, unsalted or salted, melted
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (not baking powder)
- 1 pinch salt
- ¾ cup (150 g) sugar (½ cup if you want it less sweet, 1 cup if sweeter)
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups (205 g) all-purpose flour
- Optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts, stirred in with the flour.
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Butter an 8 × 4-inch loaf pan.
- In a mixing bowl, mash the very ripe bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir in the melted butter.
- Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, the beaten egg and the vanilla.
- Mix in the flour (and the walnuts, if using). Pour the batter into the buttered pan.
- Bake 55–65 minutes, until a toothpick or skewer in the center comes out clean. A few dry crumbs are fine; streaks of wet batter are not. If the top browns before the center is done, tent loosely with foil.
- Cool a few minutes in the pan, then turn it out and cool completely. Slice with a bread knife and serve.
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June's tip: The riper the bananas, the better: peels at least half brown, insides soft. And it's baking soda, not baking powder.
Good to know: Yes, you can freeze the loaf: wrap it well first.
Storage: Wrapped well: 4 days at room temperature, up to 5 days in the fridge, or freeze.
Adapted from Banana Bread, Simply Recipes. Amounts, temperatures and times follow the source; the steps are in our own words, and metric and °C conversions are ours. We check every amount against the source line by line. How we make our recipes.
