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two halves of banana bread on top of full slice on white plate

Sourdough Banana Bread

Yield: 12 slices (1 loaf)
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups (350 g) mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
  • ½ cup (140 g) sourdough starter, fed or discard
  • ½ cup (100 g) neutral-flavored oil (see note)
  • ½ cup (106 g) packed light brown sugar
  • ½ cup (106 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 large (100 g out of shell) eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ¾ cups (249 g) all-purpose or whole wheat flour (see note if using whole wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper and lightly grease with cooking spray (I cut a strip of parchment paper and line the bottom and two long sides). Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the bananas, sourdough starter, oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla until very well-combined.
  • Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix with a rubber spatula until just combined and no dry streaks remain. Don't over mix.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes until the top springs back lightly to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Remove the bread from the pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Pan Size: this recipe makes too much batter for a smaller 8 1/2 X 4 1/2-inch loaf pan, so make sure the pan is 9X5-inches. (For high elevation baking where batter can rise quicker and sometimes overflow, you might want to reserve some of the batter and bake in a mini loaf pan or 2-3 muffins. I live at 2,500 feet and this bread does not overflow in the oven, but I haven't tested it at high elevation). 
Oil: use a neutral-flavored oil like canola, vegetable, grapeseed, melted coconut oil (refined coconut oil doesn't have a strong coconut flavor) or other oil without a strong flavor profile. I haven't tried subbing part of the oil with applesauce, but you can experiment. You can also use melted butter. If doing so, decrease the salt by 1/4 teaspoon. In my testing, the bread rises less well when using melted butter and the crumb has a slightly greasier texture. For that reason, I prefer using oil.
Whole Wheat: when using whole wheat flour in this recipe, I recommend using white whole wheat (hard or soft wheat) - or a wheat berry or flour like kamut or einkhorn. Those varieties are less dense and dark than using red whole wheat.