The Best Banana Bread is a family favorite at our house, and probably yours too!  If your kids are anything like mine, they love to help make it as much as they love to help eat it.  This recipe has been tweaked several times over the years, so at this point it’s just right for our family and we can never seem to get enough!

One of the tricks to really delicious banana bread is the bananas themselves.  But aren’t all bananas the same?  NO!

So what kind of bananas make the best bread?  The grossest, blackest, ugliest bananas.  The more overripe they are (without being moldy or rotten!), the better.  I let my bananas get completely brown before I even consider them for bread.

My friend Melanie is a chef, and told me that she peels her overripe bananas, puts them in a zip top bag, then throws them in the fridge for a few more days for that deep banana flavor to continue to develop.

What you get is a delicious, deep banana flavor that will make people wonder why their bread doesn’t taste as good as yours!

No matter what size pan you use, it always turns out great!  We usually do mini loaf pans or 9×5 loaf pans.

The Best Banana Bread

• 5 large bananas, overripe
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup coconut oil, slightly softened if necessary
• ½ cup applesauce
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
  
  Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°.
2. In mixing bowl, beat eggs and bananas until smooth.
3. Add coconut oil, applesauce & sugar and mix well.
4. Add flour, soda, salt and combine.
5. Pour into 3 greased or parchment-lined 8×4 loaf pans and bake for 60-65 minutes, or into 2 greased or parchment-lined 9×5 loaf pans for 75 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Cool in pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely. Do not cover until cool.
   Notes:

1. For mini loaves, grease pans and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes.
2. Overripe bananas might gross you out, but they really do make the best bread.  The one time I used bananas that were just speckled with brown spots instead of completely brown, the bread just didn’t taste as good.  It was lacking the depth of flavor provided by the overripe bananas.

Bonus Tip!  If your bananas are ready to be made into bread, but you’re not ready to use them, peel them, put them in a freezer-safe zip-top bag, and freeze until you’re ready to bake!  Just bring them to room temperature before adding to your bread recipe.