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1
Preheat the oven to 375F.
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2
Lightly butter or spray the bottom and sides of a 9-inch loaf pan.
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3
Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute, or until the sugar is completely mixed into the butter.
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4
Add the eggs and mix for 1 minute, or until the batter is smooth.
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5
Add the bananas and mix for 1 minute, or until no large chunks remain.
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6
The batter will be lumpy, but the pieces of banana should all be 1/2 inch or smaller.
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7
Add the baking soda and salt and mix on low speed for 1 minute, or until combined.
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8
Add the flour and mix on low speed for 1 minute, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally, until all of the flour is incorporated.
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9
Stir in the walnuts.
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10
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 15 minutes.
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11
Reduce the oven heat to 350F and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
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12
Remove the bread from the pan and place it on a cooling rack.
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13
(If you let the bread cool in the pan, the bottom will become soggy.)
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14
The process of mixing the butter and sugar until it is thoroughly combined is called creaming.
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15
It can be done by hand, but in most cases it is done with an electric mixer.
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16
As part of my constant effort to find shortcuts in cooking, I decided I could save a lot of time by just mixing all of the banana bread ingredients at the same time.
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I was right, it was faster.
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18
The bread was perfect!
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19
For a doorstop.
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20
My mom explained that wet ingredients are added first is so they can be thoroughly combined before the dry ingredients, especially flour, are added.
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When flour is mixed with liquid, it activates the gluten in the flour and the more the gluten is mixed, the more elastic it becomes.
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22
The elasticity in the flour holds down the gas bubbles formed by the baking soda and keeps the bread from rising, making one very hard and dense loaf.
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23
And I do mean very hard and dense.
