Moist Banana Bread Recipe

Yes, We Have No Bananas

Bananas come in all sizes and colors. Red, purple, and yellow are common colors but some, like the plantain, are eaten when green. The one thing that most bananas readily available to the public have in common are the seeds or, rather, the lack thereof. The Cavendish banana, the banana that is most commonly found in the market, is a seedless variety. It is cultivated through cuttings and requires no pollination. This can cause problems because no pollination means no gene exchange. Without gene exchange, a disease or insect that is fatal to one plant makes all the plants vulnerable. This is what happened to the top banana before the Cavendish.

The Gros Michel banana was the first big banana before it became susceptible to Panama disease. The resulting banana shortage is said to have inspired the song “Yes, We Have No Bananas.”

Since the Cavendish banana is in the same position as the Gros Michel and cannot evolve the necessary disease resistance to combat Panama disease, it has been estimated that we will run out of Cavendish bananas in 10-20 years.

Other non-designer bananas have a good chance to resist diseases, but they come with large seeds that consumers may not want in their bananas. On the other hand, these seeded bananas have a richer, stronger banana flavor and I personally welcome more flavor, even if it comes with big seeds.

Moist Banana Bread Recipe

On the positive side, Cavendish bananas develop a rich banana flavor the darker the skin becomes. So a mushy, brown banana will add a strong banana flavor to your banana bread. If you are looking to bake a moist banana bread recipe, the darker your banana the better. Over-ripe bananas add a lot of moisture to baked goods.

Ingredients

• 3-4 very ripe bananas
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 ¼ cups chopped walnuts
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, well-beaten
• ¾ stick of butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Instructions

1. Set one rack in the center of your oven.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Spray a 9x5x3 bread pan with non-stick spray or grease the pan with butter and dust lightly with flour.
4. Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together until well-mixed.
5. Using your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the bananas, oil, eggs, butter, and vanilla.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients with the mixer set to low.
7. Add the walnuts.
8. Pour the dough into the prepared pan.
9. Bake the banana bread for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Check the bread after 45 minutes.
10. Cool the pan on a rack until cool to the touch.
11. Turn the pan upside down and de-pan the bread.

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