Fall

Dark Brown Sugar Banana Bread

November 17, 2014
4
4 Ratings
  • Serves 8
Author Notes

this bread is light and moist with under tones of rich caramel-y banana. the older a banana is, the richer it is. i use the darkest of banana's when making this - bananas that might scare most people.
it yields a delicious tender crumb without being the least bit oily. whenever i make it it disappears in a matter of seconds. actually, my dad and brother get mad at me whenever i make it and bring it over. they blame me for feeling fat after polishing off almost the entire loaf. it's pretty stinking delicious. special note: one loaf is not one serving. ;) —Robyn Holland | Sweetish.co

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt (i prefer kosher)
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups bananas, very ripe and mashed (about 3 bananas)
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly ground
  • turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Directions
  1. preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare loaf pan with butter and flour.
  2. sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and set aside.
  3. whip butter and brown sugar together in electric mixer until fluffy. slowly add in the eggs, vanilla, whole bananas and sour cream.
  4. now add your dry ingredients, in small batches so you don't cover your face and kitchen in flour. mix until dry ingredients are incorporated. do not over mix.
  5. pour batter into prepared loaf pan. sprinkle turbano sugar on top of the loaf and bake 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
  6. cool bread at least 15 minutes before slicing. although the smell of it will tempt you otherwise.
  7. serve sliced bread with walnut cream cheese, a drizzle of fresh maple syrup and bask in the yums.
  8. * walnut cream cheese is just plain cream cheese with your choice of roasted walnuts mashed in. go crazy.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • elamb
    elamb
  • Picholine
    Picholine
  • Robyn Holland | Sweetish.co
    Robyn Holland | Sweetish.co
  • mrx
    mrx

10 Reviews

mrx April 16, 2022
Tips for other bakers: the "dry ingredients" mentioned in the second step are the flour, baking soda, and salt (listed before the wet ingredients) and cinnamon, and nutmeg (listed after the wet ingredients). Brown sugar is NOT added during the dry ingredients step, but beat with the butter in step three.
 
elamb January 30, 2021
Delicious!
 
elamb January 30, 2021
*caution: this can be very expensive banana bread*

As soon as the oven reached 350, I realized I was out of turbinado sugar! I ran over to the Starbucks on my block and bought a $6 latte as an excuse to take some of the turbinado sugar packets they have there. That said, this was an expensive loaf! Pairs well with a vanilla latte though ;)

I’ve never prepared a pan with “butter and flour” before and it seemed obvious/self-explanatory but knowing I could mess cereal up, I decided to check with Google to see how exactly it’s done. Stick of cold butter rubbed all over the pan, a cup of flour to cover the buttered pan, and then dump the excess. Easy enough. Can someone tell me what exactly this does for the loaf?

Another terrible cook question, what happens if you over mix the batter?


My loaf took 70 minutes to cook. I’m waiting for it to finishing cooling before trying. I’ll be back with the final review!

 
elamb January 30, 2021
Update: DELISH! Omg
 
Picholine December 16, 2018
Love this recipe , delicious and comes out perfect every time.
 
Jennifer December 7, 2015
Thank you, Robyn!
 
Jennifer December 3, 2015
Can you please tell me - what size loaf pan did you use? 5 x 9 inch? 4 x 8 inch? Trying to get the baking time correct.
 
Robyn H. December 3, 2015
Hi Jennifer! I usually use a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. If you're using a small pan, split the batter into the two pans evenly. If you're using a bigger loaf pan, it just wont rise quite as high over the top of the pan. This batter also makes delicious muffins too. I line my regular sized muffin tins and bake for 20-25 mins. Hope that helps! xo
 
Robyn H. December 3, 2015
9 x 5 will work beautifully!! ;)
 
Picholine January 30, 2021
What is a normal loaf Pan ?