Cardamom Coffee Banana Bread
Published Oct. 11, 2024
- Total Time
- 1¼ hours, plus cooling
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 5 minutes, plus cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 3very ripe large bananas (about 1 pound)
- ⅔packed cup/146 grams light brown sugar
- ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and slightly cooled
- ⅓cup/75 grams sour cream or whole-milk Greek yogurt
- 2large eggs
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2cups/256 grams all-purpose flour
- 1½tablespoons instant espresso powder (see Tip)
- 1teaspoon ground cardamom, preferably freshly ground
- 1teaspoon baking soda
- ½teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 3ounces/85 grams dark (bittersweet) chocolate, chopped (about ½ cup)
- 2teaspoons instant espresso powder
- ⅓cup/41 grams unsifted powdered sugar
- Pinch kosher salt
For the Banana Bread
For the (optional) Coffee Drizzle
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
344 calories; 15 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 51 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 27 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 256 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper to form a sling that hangs over the two long sides.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher until mostly smooth (a few lumps are okay). Add the brown sugar, melted butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla extract and whisk to combine.
- Step 3
Add the flour, espresso powder, cardamom, baking soda and salt and stir until just combined; do not overmix. Stir in the chocolate.
- Step 4
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread into an even layer. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached, 55 to 65 minutes.
- Step 5
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Meanwhile, make the coffee drizzle, if using: While the banana bread is cooling, combine espresso powder and 2 teaspoons water in a small bowl to dissolve. Add the powdered sugar and stir with a fork until smooth.
- Step 6
Run a knife around the sides of the bread to loosen it then grasp the parchment paper sling and lift the bread out of the pan onto a wire rack (see Tip). Peel off the parchment paper from the sides of the bread and drizzle the glaze over the top, if using (any excess will fall onto the peeled-off parchment). Let cool completely before removing the parchment paper from the bottom of the bread and slicing.
- If you’re caffeine-sensitive, look for decaf instant espresso powder, which can be a little harder to find but is available online.
- The cooled banana bread, without the glaze, can be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to 3 months. Let it thaw at room temperature at least 4 hours or up to overnight before glazing and serving. Alternatively, the bread can be baked and glazed up to a day ahead of time and stored, loosely covered, at room temperature.
Private Notes
Comments
Every time you buy bananas, buy one more than you think you need. Put that whole super-ripe last banana in the freezer, skin and all. Repeat two or three times. The night before you want to bake a banana bread, take the bananas you want to use out of the freezer and let them thaw overnight in the fridge. When you bake your cake, cut the stem off the banana and squeeze the whole thing into the mix, like a tube of toothpaste. This never fails, and works on shorter notice. (Thanks, Alton Brown!)
I’m of the opinion that the first attempt of another’s recipe should adhere to both the ingredients and methods provided by the recipe developer. As a food writer and recipe developer myself, I’ve been offended when friends ask for a recipe then leave off ingredients. (Like telling me black pepper didn’t belong in my apple/cheese/almond salad.) The problem here is that, while I love cardamom and coffee, I despise banana bread. Hatred. Vitriol. Quick breads I DO love, that would work with the cardamom and coffee, are pumpkin, sweet potato and apple butter. Erin Jean McDowell has a fantastic recipe for an apple butter bread on this site I’ve made many times. Both as written and with pumpkin or sweet potato. I see a mash up of these two in my near future.
Make this exactly as written. If you like coffee ain’t no big thing. It’s very moist. I cooked it till the very end and made sure it was completely cool before I cut into it. The cardamom is in the very back. You bite into it, it’s bananaey and then a little bitter from the coffee and then follows up with this flowery thing, that is the cardamom. Nice recipe. … and it goes with coffee.
This was so good. I will make again and again.
A banana bread for grown ups. Delicious. Better the next day. Just be sure that if you use frozen overripe bananas that you stuck in your freezer when they started to blacken, that you leave them in a bowl on the counter to completely thaw and reach room temperature. Otherwise you are putting an icy cold item into your room temperature batter and it will really affect your baking time.
Unreasonably good!! Even skipping the drizzle, which I was too lazy to do. My baking time ended up being around one hour fifteen minutes. I used nonfat Greek yogurt (by accident, don’t come for me) and it was still delicious. I also doubled the cardamom because I usually want more of that spice than recipes call for, so all in all there’s some wiggle room to play around with this one!
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