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Lemon Squares
Dena Kleiman, Susan Mahnke Peery
2029 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,029
1 hour
Updated May 2, 2024
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Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Using electric mixer, cream butter until smooth and fluffy. Add sugar and cream together 2 minutes more. One at a time, mix in eggs. Mix in bananas until only small lumps remain.
Stir dry ingredients together and mix into banana mixture just until combined. Pour into prepared pan. If making topping, stir ingredients together and sprinkle over batter.
Bake about 55 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and let cool completely before wrapping tightly for storage.
My new go to recipe. Add a teaspoon of vanilla, reduce brown sugar to half cup, and swap out half of white flour for whole wheat. Yum.
If your bananas aren’t very ripe, you can place them on a foil covered baking sheet in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 300 until the skins turn black. It releases the sugar and makes them perfect for baking.
I used this metric conversion
110g butter
100g brown sugar
2 eggs
500g bananas - 3 large
240g self raising flour
Grind of sea salt
Topping
30g flaked almonds
20g brown sugar
Shake of cinnamon
Made this for my boyfriend and he can’t stop smiling from ear to ear and giving mad praises for this recipe. I made a few alterations though: added a teaspoon of nutmeg and cinnamon, two tablespoons of freshly grated ginger, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the butter and sugar while creaming. I’ve learned that the spices and flavors are heightened and taste more when it’s added to the butter while creaming instead of adding it/them to the batter at the last minute. Overall, a great recipe
Made a lot of banana bread in my day. I like this recipe BUT I never have 5 overripe bananas on hand. I have more like 2-3. So I've learned that this recipe works very well if you sub in unsweetened apple sauce for whatever volume of banana pulp you are lacking.
I put this into 3 mini-loaf pans and baked for 35 minutes.
It would be very welcome if recipes were written with weights (in grams) as well.
Good recipe ... my banana bread frequently turns out gooey in the center, even when dark brown on top & sides. This recipe yielded bread evenly baked clear through.
I've made many banana breads over the years and this is one of the best. I just happened to have 5 frozen bananas. I let them defrost while my eggs and butter came to room temperature. The banana bread was ready in 55 minutes, not 65. It was so light that it was almost spongy and the aroma of the banana permeated the cake. I think the topping really adds to it, in both appearance and taste. Also, it gets better on day 2 and perhaps day 3, but it was eaten up.
Ajp
Don't over mix the dry ingredients with the wet. Can cause bread to be heavy.
best banana bread ever--moist and delicious. per other's notes, i cut sugar to 1/2c; added 1t vanilla. great
I added cranberry/raisin/almonds/sunflower seeds trail mix (Walmart) for some texture and taste (1/2 cup). If you don't have enough bananas, you can add some yogurt, 1/2 cup as a replacement for a banana. You may need a little more flour.
Delicious and easy to make. I added one cup of chocolate chips to the batter just before pouring into the pan. Bread was moist, firm and tasty.
I wish I paid better attention to this review regarding the cooking time. I baked mine for 60 minutes and while the banana bread is tasty, we found it dry. It is remedied by spreading cream cheese. I would cook again, use a bit less sugar and start testing for doneness at 50 minutes.
This came out of the oven looking beautiful. I took it over to a friends house for nourishment during their Dungeons & Dragons gaming. Received an Email the next day reporting that it was the best banana bread recipe any of them had ever tasted. Now that is an endorsement.
Mid bake, we realized we were out of eggs. We substituted 1/4 cup of reduced fat Chobani Greek yogurt per egg and added some mini chocolate chips instead of the topping. It came out delicious!
changes I made : cut sugar down to 1/3 cup (used granulated sugar because I didn't have brown sugar, used 3 ripe bananas, 1 1/2 cup of AP flour 8 cup loaf pan (9x4x4) 60 min at 350 F
1/2 cup sugar 2 cups bananas (5 maybe) 1/3 cup plain yogurt 1 teas vanilla
Delicious. I like the balanced butter flavored and the heavy use of banana. It's easy to make in the Cuisinart mixer - minimal bowls used. I added a few warming spices (cinnamon, clove) and tad more salt. Can't go wrong with this one.
I have made this banana bread a few times now. We like the recipe a lot. I have a question— My bread rises quite a bit more in the center. In order to ensure that the center is done, the ends ( a considerable amount) wind up being dry. Any thoughts on how to resolve this? Thank you
Great recipe! Super moist and perfect sweetness.
Made exactly as written, sans topping. Bananas were INCREDIBLY ripe. Gave a warm slice to my neighbor — she texted me within 30 seconds saying it was the best banana bread she has ever had and demanded the recipe.
This bake turned out super moist and fluffy with some modifications! I only used 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar and replaced one cup of AP flour with dark rye flour. Also added spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract) when creaming sugar as some other notes mentioned, and baked for 65 minutes total.
Have used many banana bread recipes through The years this is by far the best. Friends & fam I've made it for, request the recipe and the bread each time. Def make w the topping, and I add some dark choc chips too, abt a 1/3 a cup too. And I don't recommend not using the required amt of bananas, that's what makes it so moist and yummy.
Added chocolate chips
I love coconut, so I made a 1-1 swap of the butter for coconut oil. I also added shredded coconut into the batter. It tasted wonderful and this is how I’ll make it moving forward.
Made this today and loved it. I only had 2 over ripe bananas, so the banana flavor was a little light but still present. I made the topping with pecans rather than walnuts. Other than fewer bananas, the only change I made was to add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter. Delicious! Even my husband likes it - and he usually finds banana bread too wet. Will definitely make again - maybe even with only 2-3 bananas.
I always cut the sugar in half
I was in a hurry and didn’t convert the measurements correctly to metric. Very runny, thin mixture (far too much brown sugar, not much flour) which turned very dark while baking. And? It turned into a crispy edged sticky pudding cake. It was amazing! Now to try the recipe properly converted.
The bread turned out moist and full of banana flavor. An excellent way to use up frozen bananas!!
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