Julia's Banana Bread

Julia’s Banana Bread

(with a little tinkering)

If you’ve ever been to Maui, then you know that banana bread is to Maui what pizza is to NY, kind of. Banana bread is sold everywhere and many say they have the best on the island. Julia’s is in a remote corner of the island, but getting there is half the fun. I can’t say that I had the good luck of eating


her bread there, because the day we made the trek, the stand was closed.  Recently I stumbled across this recipe in Bon Appetite and couldn’t believe my luck. I have an old favorite banana bread recipe that I’ve been making for years,  and it was bumped into second place by this one.

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups of all purpose flour (I like to use ½ cup of whole wheat, 1 ¼ cups white)

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp of kosher salt

3 large eggs

1 ½ cup brown sugar

1 cup of very ripe mashed bananas (at least 2 large ones)

¾ cup of vegetable oil (I use grape seed oil)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

This recipe calls for a 9x5x3 loaf pan, 60-70 minutes. I’ve also used an 8x8 inch baking dish and cooking time was about 55 minutes. And I’ve used two smaller loaf pans, and that was nice because I froze one and we got to have it when we were moving recently and the kitchen was all packed up. Cooking time for those were about 45 minutes

What ever you choose to bake it in, coat it with butter.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, bananas and oil in a large bowl until smooth (or use a hand blender). Mix dry ingredients into banana mixture until just combined. Pour into baking dish and bake until a tester toothpick or sharp knife comes out clean, using times above as guides. Transfer to a wire rack; let bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges to release bread. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

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