By Joanne Sasvari

Banana bread is easy. But good banana bread, not so much. For the longest time I kept trying one new recipe after the other and they were all just, well, fine. Even the one with chocolate chips.

And then when I was testing recipes for The Wickaninnish Cookbook, I made Matthias Conradi’s banana bread and it frickin’ rocked my world. Even though the book has plenty of challenging, cheffy recipes (the Elk with Forest Flavours literally had me sobbing on the kitchen floor), this one is easy-peasy. The only slight hassle is that you need three bowls—one to mash the bananas, one to stir the dry ingredients and a big one to whisk the liquid ones and add all the rest—but that’s not exactly a deal breaker.

There are a couple of things that make this recipe stand out. One is the buttermilk, which not only keeps it from being too blandly sweet, it also interacts with the baking soda to create a lovely loft. The other is the ground hazelnuts, which keep it moist and add a gorgeous nutty flavour. Also keep in mind that you need two well-sized ripe, if not overripe, bananas.

Recipe: Banana Bread
Recipe by Matthias Conradi, from The Wickaninnish Cookbook by Joanne Sasvari (Appetite by Random House).
Yield: 1 large loaf

2 large bananas
2 cups (500 mL) pastry flour
1 tbsp (15 mL) baking soda
1 cup (250 mL) sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup (80 mL) vegetable oil
1/3 cup (80 mL) buttermilk
¾ cup (180 mL) ground hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter and flour one large loaf pan.

Mash the bananas and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift flour and baking soda, then stir in the sugar

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil and buttermilk. Stir in the mashed bananas.

Stir liquid into dry ingredients making sure there are no dry patches of flour remaining. Gently fold in the hazelnuts at the end, but be careful not to over-mix

Scrape into the loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the top is golden and firm and a straw inserted comes out clean.

To replace buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk, you can whisk a bit of milk or water into plain, unsweetened yogurt until you get a buttermilk-like consistency (about 1 part liquid to 3 parts yogurt) OR whisk together equal parts sour cream and water.