During the college semester, I make 2-4 loaves of banana bread per week, so I'm always up for tinkering with the recipe. My #1 banana bread tip is that the most important secret is REALLY REALLY ripe bananas, that most people would describe as rotten. The perfect banana bread banana is about 5 minutes before the first mold appears on the skin. Since I make so much, I am always on the lookout for cheap bananas, which I let get to perfect nastiness on the counter and then pitch into the freezer. When I need to bake, I put the frozen bananas into the microwave on the defrost cycle. Once they are defrosted, they make a slimy soupy glop. I have to bake my bread for a long time (75-90 minutes) to get it to bake -- is this because of all of the liquid? I'm game to try this trick of reducing the liquid to a syrup first to see if I can get it to bake faster. My recipe calls for a cup of banana, a cup of sugar, and two cups of flour per loaf, and I've pushed the banana to 1-2/3 cups over the years. But as the amount of banana goes up the bake time does, too. How to you get it to cook in 60-75 minutes with that much banana in it? I use 100% whole wheat flour because I like the flavor better, but I notice that I don't get the same high dome as I get with all-purpose. I have experimented with substituting 15g of vital wheat gluten for 15g of the flour, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Is this the right strategy? Am I using the right amount? My recipe came from my mom, but it must be some well-known recipe. My supermarket sells overripe bananas at a discount, and they put them in little paper sacks. They decorate the sacks with artwork, and a banana bread recipe, which is my mom's exact one. This recipe calls for butter or margarine, and I have always used solid fat, which I cream with the sugar as the first step. My mom always used bargain-brand margarine, while I've tried that, butter, butter-flavored Crisco, and now I've settled on Smart Balance (the regular, not the "lite" version). What's the difference with using oil or melting the butter/margarine? (I get the attraction of brown butter, but not oil...) Speaking of fat, why is applesauce considered a substitute for the fat rather than for the sugar? A couple of times when I lost track of my freezer inventory and been a little short of banana I've used chopped apples to stretch the bananas. If I were to invent an apple bread recipe, I would start with the banana bread recipe for the other ingredients and substitute applesauce & apples for the bananas, and it wouldn't have anything to do with the fat. I think of the bananas and the sugar as two forms of sugar in the recipe. (And for anyone who thinks that sugar is evil and bananas are health food, forget it. Especially when overripe, bananas are basically just sugar and the things that make it tastier sugar are trace elements that have no effect on the nutrition. Diabetics are specifically told to avoid overripe bananas.) As I've increased the amount of banana in my bread, I've experimented with decreasing the sugar and increasing the flour. I cook by weight, so I have been substituting gram-for-gram between flour/sugar, 28g per loaf. Is that the right strategy? Should I be using a different ratio? My recipe for one loaf of banana bread (I always double this to make 2, and use a stand mixer). It usually comes out weighing a couple of ounces over 2lbs per loaf. 113g (1/2 cup) Smart Balance 170g (7/8 cup) sugar 2 eggs 1/2 T baking soda 1/2 t salt 375g (~1-2/3 cup) mashed overripe banana 254g (2-1/8 cup) whole wheat flour 56g (1/2 cup) chopped walnuts Cream the smart balance, then add the sugar and beat at high speed until it lightens in color. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour, soda & salt to mixing bowl, then dump in the mashed bananas. Run the mixer until they are combined, then add the walnuts and mix a little longer until those are mixed. Bake at 350 for 75-90 minutes.

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