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I promise that I will not be trying to alliterate all of my recipe titles- but this banana bread really IS badass! The recipe is SO flexible and SO delicious – you can make it with butter or margarine or smart balance; you can make it with nuts or chocolate chips or plain; you can make it with 2 or 4 or 6 bananas; you can make it as a loaf or as muffins, and every single time it will be delicious!

If you are like me, you buy bananas, you try really hard to eat said bananas – like a monkey – plain, in smoothies, sliced into cereal – but inevitably the bananas get those dreaded spots and your whole kitchen starts to smell like bananas. That’s the universal signal that it is time for BANANA BREAD! No time to bake? No problem, peel those babies and toss them in the freezer for another day! The one thing I will say is peel the bananas before you freeze them, peeling thawed out bananas is slimy and gross! (in my opinion 🙂 )

I have left some notes again below to help out, but there is really a lot of flexibility in this recipe. It is one of the few baking recipes that doesn’t seem to care what type of butter you use – which reminds me, tomorrow I will share some of my findings around non-dairy “butter” 🙂

Happy baking!

Badass Banana Bread
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Badass Banana Bread

Difficulty: Easy
Servings

24

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour (unbleached)

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 2 teaspoons baking soda

  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

  • 1 cup softened margarine or butter or smart balance

  • 1-1/2 cup light brown sugar (dark will work too)

  • 1/2 cup white granulated sugar

  • 2 cups overripe bananas – mashed

  • 4 eggs (medium/large)

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 1 cup walnuts or dark chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  • Prepare pans; 2 choices:
    a. cupcake pans (24 cupcakes) with liners + 2 mini loaf pans (because there will be some left after the cupcakes, or make more cupcakes!)
    b. grease and flour two 9×5 inch loaf pans
  • In a big bowl sift together dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp. cinnamon – put aside.

    I used to doubt the value of sifting, but let me tell you the few extra minutes it takes is totally worth it! Especially if you are like me and have baking soda that inevitably starts clumping 🙂
  • In a separate bowl, mash bananas using a potato masher until you have 2 cups mashed bananas. I find that this is usually ~4 medium bananas, but don’t kill yourself, a little more or a little less will be fine!
  • With stand mixer (paddle attachment) cream together 1 cup softened margarine, 1-1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar until smooth and creamy; scrape down as needed. I love my stand mixer, but if you don’t have one a wooden spoon and some muscle will work 🙂
  • Add the 4 eggs one at a time; mixing and scraping down after each one. If using a stand mixer make sure you scrape manually at least once- I always find some unmixed butter hanging out
  • Mix in the 1 tsp vanilla and 2 cups mashed bananas; scrape down
  • Mix in the dry ingredients in batches, scraping down after each time. Make sure there are no dry spots hiding!
  • (optional) stir in the nuts or chocolate chips/chunks. For cupcakes I like to add them in after they are in the liners with a quick mix with a chopstick!
  • Pour the batter into the pans: for cupcakes: fill each liner 2/3 full; for loafs: split batter evenly between the two pans
  • Bake until knife comes out clean: for cupcakes: ~30 minutes; for loafs: 60 to 70 minutes (check after 40 minutes as ovens may vary)
  • Let cool and enjoy!

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