Best -Ever Banana Bread

This is one of my holy-grail baking recipes and today’s your lucky day because I’m finally sharing it on here!

This is one of my go-tos when I feel like baking and is often-requested by friends and family. I pretty much have the recipe memorized by now, and have made some tweaks over the years, but it’s a classic for a reason!

My banana bread tips:

Choose the right ‘nanas. You want ripe, brown-speckled bananas, but not too ripe. If the bananas are black and super-soft they can start to affect the structure of the banana bread and give off a slightly booze-y flavour that isn’t ideal.
Use a good amount of banana— I use about 3 large bananas and that gives you the flavour and moistness you want in a banana bread.
Use vegetable oil. I always prefer vegetable oil over butter in quick breads and cakes because it helps keep baked goods moist over several days and means you don’t have to get out an electric mixer to cream butter—double win.
Add a hint of tang. I love stirring in a bit of creme fraiche, sour cream or Greek yogurt (which is usually what I have in my fridge) into the batter, which adds an extra bit of richness and offsets the sweetness nicely.
Add a crunchy topping. The texture contrast of a soft, moist slice of banana bread with a crunchy, craggy crust on top is unbeatable. I don’t do anything too fussy that adds extra time. I stir together some sugar, cinnamon and raw turbinado sugar and sprinkle generously on top, which takes things up multiple notches with very little effort.

makes 1 loaf

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup canola oil, or other vegetable oil

3 large bananas, very ripe, mashed

2 tbsp Greek yogurt, sour cream, or creme fraiche

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional

Cinnamon-Sugar Topping

1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp turbinado sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9 x 3-inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Beat together sugar and eggs in a large bowl, until they’re a pale cream colour and form thick ribbons, about 6 minutes. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking constantly until well combined.
Stir in mashed bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and chocolate chips, if using.
Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan. Combine both sugars and cinnamon and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar topping all over the top of the batter.
Bake on the middle rack of oven until the top is a deep brown colour and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 60-70 minutes. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Store banana bread in an air-tight container or well-wrapped at room temperature for up to 1 week (if it lasts that long).