The ONLY Banana Bread Recipe You Need

The ASTRO Chocolate Banana Bread

The question of whether or not banana bread is “still in style” is one of the more ridiculous questions to ever be posed. As if a loaf of sweet, buttery, banana-y goodness, all the better for being flecked with chunks of dark chocolate, could ever not be a kitchen and dietary staple, and therefore a timeless classic. Nothing else I can think of performs the kind of alchemical poetry of turning on-the-brink-of-rotten fruit into something so exquisitely life-affirming.

I have made this banana bread more than any other baked good, by a long shot. It outsold every other cake, cookie or scone by almost double, consistently, for almost 10 years at Astro Coffee, the coffee shop I owned and ran with my husband in Detroit for over 10 years. And yet I had never actually made it at home, on a home scale- a single loaf-until recently. I have been squirreling nearly-dead bananas away in my freezer for almost a year, not even game enough to peel them for fear they may erupt from their skins into a sticky liquid mass all over my counter. But a hankering for nostalgia, a need to clear out the freezer (and a few sad attempts to try other recipes) had me finally break down the recipe for my home kitchen. It is really good, just as I remembered. To be audacious, I would say you could throw all other banana bread recipes away, but that’s just my opinion.

In case it wasn’t clear, you want your bananas to be REAALLY ripe. So if you haven’t been saving them in the freezer as I have, buy a bunch now and just let them hang out in your house for a week or two until they are nice and brown and a little mushy (not *actually* rotten). If you are using bananas from your freezer, pull them out the night before and thaw in your fridge in a container, they will leak.

Another thing to note is that I always hand chop my chocolate. It is important if you want to get the large uneven chunks throughout and the little shards melting though the batter as it cooks. It really isn’t very much for a single loaf, so you won’t work up too much of sweat doing it (it is a genuine workout to do it on a large scale!)

I have a funny little loaf tin that I got from Ikea a while ago, it was a perfect size for this recipe (4x11.5 inches) but if you have a regular small loaf tin, you may just have a little extra batter for a mini muffin or two.

I have given measurements here for grams and cup measures. Sometimes I am too lazy to pull out my scales, but if you bake with any frequency I highly recommend investing in a digital scale- it doesn’t have to be fancy, I think mine was less than $30- as it will make all the difference to consistency in your baking and there are some things you just cannot do without them.

I always use a mixer to make this, though I am sure you could mix it by hand using a whisk, just whisk the bananas and sugar together long enough that it becomes fairly ‘liquidy’.

Astro Chocolate Banana Bread

450g/ about 4 medium-large Bananas, skin removed (weight is without skin)

270g/ 1 1/4 C Sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g Butter, melted and cooled (hot butter in cakes will turn them into an oily mess so cool it down!)

2 eggs (large), lightly beaten with a fork

170g/ 1 1/3 C AP Flour (Plain Flour)

45g/ 1/3 C Spelt flour (or sub ap flour/ another whole grain flour if you don’t have spelt)

6g/ 1tsp baking soda (bi-carb soda), sifted

4g/ 1/2 tsp salt

125g/ 1/2 C Dark chocolate, chopped into roughly chickpea sized pieces (I use Callebaut semi-sweet)

1-2 T extra sugar for topping (if you have turbinado, great, otherwise plain is fine)

• Preheat oven to 350*F/180*C and grease and line a loaf tin with parchment paper.

• In a mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the bananas, sugar and vanilla on low speed. The idea is not to incorporate air here but rather to make a nice little banana soup. You can keep it running while you get everything else ready if you aren’t on top of your mise-en-place.

• Slowly pour in the butter, followed by the eggs.

• Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda and salt. Add them to the mixer and mix until almost fully incorporated, then add the chocolate. Mix for a few more seconds, then turn off the mixer and remove the bowl. Give a final mix with a spoon, making sure all the liquid from the bottom is incorporated, before pouring into the baking tin.

• Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center removes clean (save for some melted chocolate), depending on your oven or tin this make take up to 60 minutes. Use your NOSE, the more you bake, the more you will be able to SMELL when something is almost done. Cool in the tin for at least 10 minutes before removing and leave it to cool before slicing.

Banana bread will last well, covered, for up to a week, though is best enjoyed within 3 days, and freezes very well. ENJOY!!!!

Lil B’Bread Baby sitting happy in my kitchen, did not last long like this