Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 13 hours ago
This is a quite serviceable banana bread / mini-loaf / muffin recipe with the caveat that it will not dome up like a regular muffin or cupcake – it is too loose for that. It is, however, delicious. Save old bananas too ripe to eat and freeze them. If they’re small and old, wait to have 6. If you’re buying bananas to let them go spotty and then freeze, 5 will do.
We baked some as mini-loaves and some as a large loaf all at once, with very interesting results. Some of the mini- loaves were very pale, but they were in fact fully cooked. The best flavor was probably to be found in the loaves with moderate color. The large loaf has quite a dark exterior, not burned but quite bold in flavor. If you’re baking large loaves, and when I do in the future, consider starting with an oven at 350F but decreasing the temperature to 325F either immediately or about 15 minutes in. That way, as the loaf warms through and cooks, it will color a bit less on the outside.
I have admittedly not done much baking in the mini-loaf pan. In the oven, the edges of the pan were hanging over the edges of the sheet pan I had under it to catch drips and help prevent bottom-burning. The effect of that seems to have been that the outer loaves got more heat, transmitted by the exposed ears. So it is probably better for even heating to ensure that the muffin or mini-loaf pan doesn’t peek over the edge of the underpan. Also, unless your oven heats really unevenly, consider not disturbing the banana bread during cooking.
If you want to make muffins, usually muffin pans have 12 cups, and it is hard to say whether a mini-loaf is exactly two muffins. Since it would be better for the batter not to expand out of the cup, it is probably better to say that there are 36 muffins in a batch, or three whole pans.
Makes 2 regular loaves or 16 mini-loaves or 32-36 muffins.
Equipment:
• some combination of pans to contain the batter: 2 loaf and/or mini-loaf pans, or 3 muffin pans (w/ underpans)
• a stand or hand mixer is recommended (paddle attachment/regular beaters)
• a medium mixing bowl for dry ingredients
• a kitchen scale (metric)
• a flexible spatula for scraping
• a cooling rack
Ingredients:
500 g banana mash 5 bananas
450 g sugar
225 g butter 1/2 lb; very soft
4 ea eggs room temperature
130 ml Sour cream ~5 fl oz
1 tsp vanilla extract
375 g AP flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
Procedure:
1. Thaw 5 or so frozen, very-ripe bananas. If you have five very-ripe bananas which aren’t frozen that’s fine too. Freezing helps to ensure they’re very soft but is not required.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. Prepare the baking dishes: butter the loaf pans or mini-loaf/muffin cups, and optionally line them with flour.
4. Using a scale, peel the bananas and place them all into a bowl on the scale to make sure they weigh about 500g (about 18 oz). Anywhere from 16 to 20oz, or 450g to 550g is going to work okay, so no need to agonize.
5. Weigh out the other ingredients. The flour should go into its own bowl, with the other small dry ingredients. The sugar should go into the mixer bowl along with the butter.
6. Cream together the sugar and butter thoroughly.
7. Add the eggs to the butter-sugar one at a time, incorporating each completely.
8. Scrape the bottom of the mixer bowl and ensure there are no isolated clumps of unmixed ingredients.
9. Add the vanilla, sour cream, and banana mash.
10. Mix until well combined. The mixture will probably look curdled and possibly ruined at this point. This is normal.
11. In the dry bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking power and baking soda until combined.
12. Add the flour to the wet mix, and combine just until the flour is evenly incorporated. Do not overmix.
13. Pour or scoop the batter into the lined baking molds. Fill the cavities to about 1/2 full.
14. Bake at 350F until done, or see notes regarding a more nuanced process for loaves. Mini-loaves should be done after 20 minutes at 350F.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
This is a quite serviceable banana bread / mini-loaf / muffin recipe with the caveat that it will not dome up like a regular muffin or cupcake – it is too loose for that. It is, however, delicious. Save old bananas too ripe to eat and freeze them. If they’re small and old, wait to have 6. If you’re buying bananas to let them go spotty and then freeze, 5 will do.
We baked some as mini-loaves and some as a large loaf all at once, with very interesting results. Some of the mini- loaves were very pale, but they were in fact fully cooked. The best flavor was probably to be found in the loaves with moderate color. The large loaf has quite a dark exterior, not burned but quite bold in flavor. If you’re baking large loaves, and when I do in the future, consider starting with an oven at 350F but decreasing the temperature to 325F either immediately or about 15 minutes in. That way, as the loaf warms through and cooks, it will color a bit less on the outside.
I have admittedly not done much baking in the mini-loaf pan. In the oven, the edges of the pan were hanging over the edges of the sheet pan I had under it to catch drips and help prevent bottom-burning. The effect of that seems to have been that the outer loaves got more heat, transmitted by the exposed ears. So it is probably better for even heating to ensure that the muffin or mini-loaf pan doesn’t peek over the edge of the underpan. Also, unless your oven heats really unevenly, consider not disturbing the banana bread during cooking.
If you want to make muffins, usually muffin pans have 12 cups, and it is hard to say whether a mini-loaf is exactly two muffins. Since it would be better for the batter not to expand out of the cup, it is probably better to say that there are 36 muffins in a batch, or three whole pans.
Makes 2 regular loaves or 16 mini-loaves or 32-36 muffins.
Equipment:
• some combination of pans to contain the batter: 2 loaf and/or mini-loaf pans, or 3 muffin pans (w/ underpans)
• a stand or hand mixer is recommended (paddle attachment/regular beaters)
• a medium mixing bowl for dry ingredients
• a kitchen scale (metric)
• a flexible spatula for scraping
• a cooling rack
Ingredients:
500 g banana mash 5 bananas
450 g sugar
225 g butter 1/2 lb; very soft
4 ea eggs room temperature
130 ml Sour cream ~5 fl oz
1 tsp vanilla extract
375 g AP flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
Procedure:
1. Thaw 5 or so frozen, very-ripe bananas. If you have five very-ripe bananas which aren’t frozen that’s fine too. Freezing helps to ensure they’re very soft but is not required.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. Prepare the baking dishes: butter the loaf pans or mini-loaf/muffin cups, and optionally line them with flour.
4. Using a scale, peel the bananas and place them all into a bowl on the scale to make sure they weigh about 500g (about 18 oz). Anywhere from 16 to 20oz, or 450g to 550g is going to work okay, so no need to agonize.
5. Weigh out the other ingredients. The flour should go into its own bowl, with the other small dry ingredients. The sugar should go into the mixer bowl along with the butter.
6. Cream together the sugar and butter thoroughly.
7. Add the eggs to the butter-sugar one at a time, incorporating each completely.
8. Scrape the bottom of the mixer bowl and ensure there are no isolated clumps of unmixed ingredients.
9. Add the vanilla, sour cream, and banana mash.
10. Mix until well combined. The mixture will probably look curdled and possibly ruined at this point. This is normal.
11. In the dry bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking power and baking soda until combined.
12. Add the flour to the wet mix, and combine just until the flour is evenly incorporated. Do not overmix.
13. Pour or scoop the batter into the lined baking molds. Fill the cavities to about 1/2 full.
14. Bake at 350F until done, or see notes regarding a more nuanced process for loaves. Mini-loaves should be done after 20 minutes at 350F.
Music: bensound.com/royalty-free-music
