Banana Bread

 

Question: what's the best thing to do with ripe bananas?  spoiler alert, it's banana bread! In the past two years, I've used pretty much all of my ripe bananas trying to achieve The Ultimate Banana Bread.  My lovely floormates have dutifully tried every single loaf of bread I have made, including the one where I forgot to add baking soda. Thanks guys, you're the best :)

Anyhow, the special ingredient that I've incorporated in my banana bread is...

...Greek yogurt!

I've found that a generous dollop of plain Greek yogurt makes the bread much more moist, while preserving the banana flavor. nom nom nom.  Also, if your bananas are in prime banana-bread condition and you don't want to let them attract fruit flies, you can freeze them until you have the time and the resources to bake.

And the batter tastes pretty good too! My friend Sylvia had no trouble cleaning out the bowl :)

Banana Bread, as inspired by Flour's recipe:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional:  2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
                 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.  In a separate bowl, whip the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy.  Add in the oil, mashed bananas, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract.  Mix in the dry ingredients with a spatula until the consistency is uniform, and pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

*For peanut butter banana bread, substitute the Greek yogurt for 1 tablespoon of peanut butter and 1 tablespoon of heavy cream.