My friend Meagan is one of those home bakers who can do no wrong in the kitchen. She’s the kind of person who regularly whips up macarons like it’s no big deal (I can assure you, it is), can make a three-tiered cake in her sleep, and seemingly nails every baking experiment that she tries. A few weeks ago she showed up with a carrot cake loaf, and reader, I kid you not I ate half the loaf in one sitting. The loaf was impossibly moist and tender, with just the right balance of flavor.
The recipe comes from the blog Paris Chez Sharon, who adapted it from Matthieu Carlin, the pastry chef of the luxury Hotel de Crillon. The hook of the original carrot cake recipe is that the whole thing is made in a food processor, which I’ve never seen done before.
So, how does all this get me to banana bread? I figured if a loaf is a loaf is a loaf (kind of), then a similar recipe would work just as well swapping carrots for bananas. I made a few other tweaks to the recipe, like cutting down on the amount of oil since bananas have more moisture, cutting down on the sugar to make it more of a snack than dessert, and adding a crunchy turbinado sugar topping. I also skipped the food processor, since not everyone has one at home. I know claiming a recipe to be the best is a tall order, but this one really is.
In order to make the best banana bread possible, you need to use very ripe bananas. As bananas ripen, the starch turns to sugar, making them sweeter and more flavorful.
If you have some sitting around on your counter, great! If not, there’s a few quick tips to get “ripe” bananas in no time. I’ll let a bunch of bananas go completely brown and store them in the freezer for moments like this. To defrost, simply let them sit at room temperature for a few hours to thaw out, or microwave for 2 minutes. Alternatively, you can place unpeeled yellow bananas on a sheet tray and bake them for about 30 minutes at 300˚F. While the flavor won’t be as good as the real thing, it’ll totally work in a pinch.
A few notes to consider:
Walnuts are optional! You can use whatever type of nut you have on hand. For an extra boost of flavor, try toasting them before incorporating them into the batter.
If you’re into chocolate chip banana bread, go ahead and add them in right after you fold the batter together.
While I haven’t tried (yet), I suspect this recipe would also work with zucchini, or as a base for another type of loaf cake.
Makes 1 loaf
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Side Dish to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.