Best banana bread on earth, really?

While doing research for our trip to Maui a few weeks ago I kept seeing a place called Julia's Banana Bread being mentioned. Apparently they claim to have the best banana bread on EARTH. Could this be true? I must try this bread! While H and I were driving around the west side of the island on some pretty sketchy roads (Well, sketchy for me, not H)




We came across the roadside sign for this banana bread mecca so decided to stop and check it out. Here is me with Julia the baker and our magic bread. For some reason, I look super super happy...maybe it was just pregnancy cravings.


We broke it out once back to the hotel and let me tell you...it was pretty dang good. Really moist and banana-y. Its was also super dark in color (almost black) which is unlike most banana breads I've tried.

Fast forward to today....I wanted to try to recreate this super bread for myself. Using the basic banana bread recipe from Americas Test Kitchen and tweaking it a bit (extra butter, vanilla and tossing in a touch of molasses) I think I managed to make something pretty good. Its really moist and has a nice flavor but its not super dark like Julia's. I have no idea how she does that! I thought the molasses would do it but it didn't. Anyone have any ideas?

Here is the Americas Test Kitchen recipe (in my cooks notes at the bottom you can see the extras I added)

2 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 cups walnuts, toasted, chopped coarse (about 1 cup)
3 bananas, very ripe, soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 5 inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.

2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla in medium bowl. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

NOTES:

I doubled the vanilla, added 2 tbs extra butter and 1/4 cup molasses. Also, I removed the walnuts totally.

There is nothing worse then a dry banana bread so keep an eye on it. Remove from oven the second its cooked through!