More than ever, I am starting to believe that the more you try out other people’s recipes the more you learn how to come up with your own. As you bake or cook, you adjust things to your liking then before you know it you’re cooking without following any instructions.
I am slowly getting there with my baking but sometimes it’s good to take a break from all of that and just follow some pre-written steps. For some years now, Smitten Kitchen’s marbled banana bread recipe was my go-to when I had overripe bananas. It always worked and the only thing I would change was the chocolate part (because I didn’t have it). Recently, she posted her Ultimate Banana Bread recipe and I jumped at the chance to try it out.
I can honestly say that it works. Unfortunately, I only had 5 bananas on me plus I added some cocoa powder to the recipe and I thought that would destroy the final product but the recipe was kind to me. I baked two beautiful tiny loaves that did not last more than 3 days before they were all gone.
Here are the ingredients I did use:
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, plus more for pan
- 1 cup (190 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 5 medium-large bananas
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
I only took out what I didn’t have and did my best to stick to the measurements as best as I could which is probably the only reason I didn’t end up with a dry mess.
You can find her recipe here! I hope you try it and love it as much as I did.