Just like a lot of people, I made tons of banana bread during the first few months of the COVID pandemic. During this time, I think it became a sort of comfort food for all of us. It was something easy for all of us to bake, but it also provided a sense of accomplishment (yay! I baked something instead of panicking about not having any toilet paper). And, of course, it’s delicious.

I tried lots of different banana bread recipes during this time and finally ended up adapting my favorite one from Mark Bittman’s book, How to Cook Everything. If you need something fast and easy, I highly recommend trying this adaptation. You can even fuss with it to leave certain ingredients out, like the walnuts, coconut, and nutmeg or add other stuff in like chocolate chips—banana bread isn’t fussy.

Here’s How To Make It

Step 1: Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2: Crush up some walnuts with your hands, put them on a baking sheet, and toast them for about five minutes. I have this little trick I like to use to make sure the walnuts don’t burn. Keep your nose peeled. Once you smell the aroma of the walnuts, they’re done toasting. Take them out and let them cool off a bit, while you’re mixing the rest of the ingredients.

Step 3: Blend your dry stuff in a separate bowl. I like to whisk mine together, but you can use a fork, a hand mixture, or if you want to get fancy, a food processor.

1 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
½ Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt

Step 4: Cream together the wet stuff. I just throw my ingredients into the KitchenAid with the paddle attachment, but you can use a hand mixer or even a fork and a wooden spoon, if you haven’t got one. NBD.

1 Stick of Butter (salted or unsalted—whatever you have on hand). Here’s the thing about your butter. You’re going to want to use room temperature or softer butter, because it gets creamier, but when making banana bread, most of us don’t plan ahead that much. I learned this neat trick to soften your butter fairly quickly without accidentally melting it in the microwave on the defrost setting (yeah, we’ve all done that!). Simply, get a clean water glass and run it under some hot water for a few seconds. Then stick it over your stick of butter. It’ll soften fairly fast.
2 or 3 Super Ripe Bananas. If you have two, use two. If you have three, use three. I wouldn’t use more than three or less than two, however. You can pre-mash them with a fork or just peel them and toss them in.
2 Eggs
¾ Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
A little less than ¼ Teaspoon Nutmeg (this is a personal preference of mine, because I love nutmeg. If you’re not into it, you could also try cinnamon. If you like both, add a little bit of both. If you don’t like either, leave them out.

Step 5: Mix your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients. Then add your toasted walnuts and some unsweetened coconut flakes. Make sure not to over mix things.

Step 6: Get your loaf pan ready. I like to line mine with parchment paper on the bottom (I love parchment paper) and grease the sides with butter, but you don’t have to do that. You can simply grease the whole thing with a little butter or grease the whole thing with butter and sprinkle a little flour over it. It’s your loaf pan, so you know what works best.

Step 7: Bake at 350 degrees for 45–60 minutes. This will depend on how hot your oven gets. I like to bake it for 45 minutes and see where we are at that point. If it needs a little longer, I just check it in five minute increments.

Step 8: Take it out of the over and let it cool for about 15 minutes before you eat it. This step is super hard.

Step 9: Slice it and eat it plain or top it with whatever you want: butter, peanut butter, or Nutella®.