Diary of a Chef · Just Chefn Around

Classic Banana Bread

30 minutes · 4 servings

By Diary of a Chef

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas (heavily speckled to black — the darker, the sweeter)
• 8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, melted
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

1. 1Wet ingredients

   Whisk melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla into the bananas until uniform and glossy.

2. 2Dry ingredients

   Sprinkle flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon over the top; fold just until no dry pockets remain. Thick, scoopable batter.

3. 3Bake

   Into a 350°F oven. Done when the top is deep golden brown and cracked down the middle, the kitchen smells like caramelized banana, and a skewer in the center comes out with moist crumbs but no wet batter (~55–65 minutes).

4. 4Cool in the pan

   The loaf firms enough to lift out clean. Slices best fully cool; nobody waits that long.