Flour's Famous Banana Bread

4 from 1 vote

The best ever banana bread from Boston's bakery, Flour.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: bread

Servings: servings

Calories: 220kcal

Heat the oven to 325ºF degrees. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment, beat the sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Or whip by hand with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 8 minutes.)
With the mixer on low speed, slowly drizzle in the oil. Be sure NOT to pour the oil in all at once; add it slowly so that it has time to incorporate into the eggs and doesn’t deflate the air you’ve just beaten into the batter. This took about 1 minute.
Add the mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in the dry ingredients and nuts by hand until thoroughly combined, so there are no more flour streaks in the batter.
Pour the batter into a buttered 9×5-inch loaf pan and bake for 60 to 75 minutes, until the top of the banana bread is golden brown and springs back when you poke it in the middle. If your finger sinks when you poke it, it needs to bake a little longer. Let cool for at least 30 minutes and then pop out of the pan and serve. Keeps for 2 to 3 days at room temperature, tightly wrapped. Or store in the freezer, tightly wrapped in plastic, for up to 2 weeks and defrost overnight at room temperature.

Be sure to use very RIPE bananas! If your bananas are not ripe enough, you can actually ripen them in your oven in a jiffy! Heat your oven to 300F, and put your unpeeled bananas on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for 15-30 minutes.
When you add the oil into your the sugar and eggs you want to slowly add it in with your mixer on low. This step should take about a minute. So slow. If you add the oil in all at once you risk of deflating all that air you incorporated into the eggs and sugar in the step before.
This recipe calls for toasted walnuts. I know it probably sounds like a tedious step, but it's totally worth it. Toasting walnuts brings out the flavor and makes them so much better. You want to spread the walnuts on a cookie sheet and bake them for 8 to 10 minutes. Any more and you run the risk of burning them and you don't want that.
When you go to add your flour and walnuts, you want to stop using your mixer at this point and fold them in with a spatula. By using a spatula you won't over mix the bread, which could result in a tough dense bread.

Adapted from Flour Bakery