Bakery Style Banana Bread

and other easy recipes i love for your all your blizzard baking needs

Feb 23, 2026

There’s a blizzard in New York today, the kind they say that only comes around once in every 100 years. Sometimes it requires an act of god to remind you to slow down. In these moments, I always turn to baking, its ritual, its quiet. It’s hard to find this kind of quiet in New York but then suddenly every sound is chewed up and swallowed by the layer of snow that blankets the city, that continues to fall sideways in the wine. This was a kind of quiet I used to relish at five in the morning, before New York woke up and the sun rose and the noise that I’m used to—a mix of loud chatter and sirens and the whirring of E-bikes—returned to its full din. This recipe is inspired by the banana bread I used to make ever weekend at the bakery where I worked in the East Village, but has been adapted with home bakers in mind. It’s a perfectly peaceful experience, turning bananas into sweet bread and serving it warm with butter and honey. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients

1 stick butter, browned

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 eggs

5 Bananas, mashed (2 cups)

1 cup AP flour

½ cup whole wheat flour (sub with equal parts AP if you don’t have whole wheat)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon (or more to taste)

½ cup chocolate chips, or chopped walnuts

Method:

Brown your butter. Add to a large mixing bowl and let cool completely.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a standard loaf pan with non-stick spray and parchment.
In a small bowl, finely mash 4 of your bananas with the back of a fork. Add in your fifth banana and with your hands or a fork, gently mash leaving large, whole chunks, about the size of a quarter. Set aside.
Once your butter has cooled, add in sugar and maple syrup. Whisk until well combined and it has lightened slightly in color. Add in you eggs and beat until well to combined. Stir in the banana.
Next, add your flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon over the banana mixture and whisk to combine. Optional here to fold in chocolate chips or crushed walnuts.
Pour your batter into your prepared baking dish. Sprinkle over with turbinado or granulated sugar.
Bake for 35 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees in the oven and bake another 15-20 minutes until a toothpick when inserted in the center comes out clean and when you press down gently on the top it springs back. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan 10-15 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

And Other Recipes I Love: