Classic Double-Loaf Banana Bread
Submitted by darla
Classic large-batch banana bread with up to six mashed bananas, butter, eggs, and chopped nuts. A double-loaf recipe that bakes one big bread or two smaller loaves with extra batter for muffins.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
80 minREADY
100 minThis banana bread is a double-batch recipe, the kind you make when you’ve got six brown bananas on the counter and a couple of neighbors who deserve a loaf. The flour-to-banana ratio is generous, 3½ cups of flour against 4 to 6 bananas, which gives plenty of structure to hold up to all that fruit weight without the loaf collapsing in the middle.
Four eggs is a lot for banana bread, and they’re doing real work. They lift the heavy batter, set the crumb fast enough to hold the bananas in suspension, and contribute richness that lets the bread keep tender for nearly a week if you wrap it well.
The recipe is smart about pan management. With this much batter, a single 9×5 loaf pan will overflow if you fill it past two-thirds. The recipe rightly suggests baking the leftover batter as muffins or splitting into two smaller loaves, both of which finish in about an hour instead of the 80 minutes a single big loaf demands.
Use fully spotted bananas. Six pale yellow ones won’t give you the sweetness or aroma of three black-spotted ones.
Pro Tips
- Cream butter and sugar a full 3 minutes. The aeration matters in a heavy batter like this.
- Alternate flour and banana additions. Dumping bananas in all at once breaks the emulsion.
- Don’t overfill the pan past two-thirds. Banana bread rises significantly and overflow is a kitchen disaster.
- Cool the loaf 15 minutes in the pan before turning out. Big loaves need extra setup time.
Variations
Ingredients
Directions
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt. Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs & vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with bananas. Add nuts.
Bake 1 hour 20 minutes at 350℉ (180℃) in a greased & floured 9×5×3” loaf pan. (Don’t fill pan more than ⅔ full - bake extra batter in muffin tins; or divide batter, & make 2 smaller loaves, baking about an hour, or until browned & bread pulls away from sides of pan.)
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