This is AB's banana bread recipe from IJHFMF with a few tiny modifications and comments. I've made it probably 10 times over the last year
Ingredients
(dry team)
220g AP flour
35g oat flour, which means 35g oats put through a spice grinder or food processor
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
(wet team A)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond extract etc if you're feeling adventurous)
(wet team B)
4 bananas, extremely overripe, like seriously they will be nearly black, it takes a couple of weeks for them to get this way
180-210g sugar, to taste (original recipe says 210). I like to sub a little brown sugar or honey.
(misc)
extra butter for pan
dark(!) chocolate chips (only optional if you don't like being awesome)
chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
Note: if you have 6 bananas, or whatever, this recipe can be scaled up, but as written it fills a loaf pan so you will need additional pans.
Tools
kitchen scale (we bake by weight, not volume!)
3 bowls
mixing spoon
electric hand mixer (optional)
loaf pan (mine is about 10"x5"x3") or muffin pan(s)
parchment paper
oven (duh)
cooling rack
Procedure
1. Peel the bananas and pile them in a bowl. This step is first so that you can abort if you find that they're moldy.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 350degF
3. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
4. Assemble wet team B by adding the sugar to the bananas and mashing/mixing thoroughly. I use a hand mixer.
5. Assemble the dry team. Toast the oats before grinding if you're feeling ambitious.
6. Finish wet team A by adding the eggs and vanilla to the butter and mixing gently. Just break the egg membranes and scramble them a bit. If the butter is hot when you do this it will cook the eggs and that is Bad.
7. Add wet team A to wet team B and mix. Again I use a hand mixer.
8. Add the combined wet team to the dry team. Mix only until combined (meaning no pockets of un-moistened flour). If your bananas were huge, or you used more than 4, the batter may seem too wet. Add a bit of extra flour. Getting this right takes practice.
9. Mix in chocolate chips and/or nuts to taste.
10a. If using a loaf pan, rub the inside with butter and then line with parchment paper (only the long sides need to be papered, the short sides will be touched by the batter and this is fine)
10b. If using a muffin pan, use muffin wrappers (or don't, in which case you're on your own)
11. Pour in your batter. For the loaf pan this is simple. For muffins, I haven't yet figured out how much should go in each one. Best of luck.
12a. For a loaf, bake in the center of the oven at 350 for 45 minutes then raise to 380-400 (experiment) for 15 minutes more (this browns the outside and firms the crust). Ovens vary and you may need to tweak times and temps. When it's done a toothpick will come out not-quite-clean (unlike a cake). If a toothpick comes out totally clean it's probably overbaked and the voice of Paul Hollywood will haunt your dreams.
12b. For muffins, bake for uhhhh less time than that? I haven't gotten them right yet.
13. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes in the pan, then remove from the pan and cool for 60 minutes or until you can't stand to wait any longer.
14. I wrap the loaf tightly in plastic, then foil, and keep it on the counter. It will definitely keep for a week. You will almost certainly eat it all before a week goes by.
