Oh so long ago, back when I was still in high school, my mom came home from work one day clutching a photocopied hand-written banana bread recipe. I wasn’t impressed, but she claimed it was the recipe for the best banana bread she had ever tasted in her life. It was a pretty bold statement, especially for my mom, who isn’t really prone to superlatives – she’s more the stoic type. Still, she stood by it. She even had a bunch of bananas, purchased with the sole purpose of ripening for the bread.
I had my doubts. I was wary of the illegible hand writing, the oil content, and, well, everything. But, I stand corrected: it really was the best banana bread ever. It was the banana bread dreams are made of. Moist, not too sweet, not overly oily, and loaded with banana flavor. The crowning glory was its crunchy, crisp, domed top. We must’ve made that banana bread hundreds of times after the first. The recipe got wrinkly, banana-stained, and well loved, until one day, it decided enough.
It was gone. We spent a good half a day searching. Its usual spot was stuck to the side of the microwave with a Care Bear magnet. The candy colored, Care Bear stare magnet was still there, its innocent smile belying its poor job performance. The magnet had one job – keep the recipe safe – and it failed.
Sadly, at this point my mom changed offices and the banana bread creator wasn’t available for consultation. We tried again and again to re-create the loaf from memory, but it was futile: some loaves came pretty close, but to be honest, they were never quite right.
To this day, I’m still searching for that elusive bread. In some ways whenever I have banana bread I feel betrayed. I’m always hoping for a taste of the past, only to be disappointed by overly sweet, dry loaves.
In desperation, I turned to the avocado. I don’t have a cool story for why I decided on avocados, aside from the fact that I thought it would be hilarious to have avocado toast made with avocado bread (the yeasted kind). From there I started thinking about quick breads and why bananas, zucchinis, and carrots got all the love.
Essentially, I substituted avocado in a slightly adapted version of my second favorite banana bread recipe. I ended up with a pleasantly green, slightly sweet, tender loaf. I topped a still warm slice with a scoop of ice cream and even Mike, who was a skeptic at first, thought it was a winner.
Avocado Bread Recipe
makes 1 small loaf
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup butter at room temp
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup mashed avocado*
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
Notes: The lime juice keeps the loaf a green color, you can skip out on it if you don’t have any on hand, just know that your loaf won’t be as verdant.
If you have a food processor or blender, blend your avocado – it needs to be completely smooth for this.
Preheat the oven to 325°F and line a small loaf pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla throughly and then the mashed avocado and lime juice. Gently fold in the flour mix, being careful not to over mix.
Spoon the batter (it is very thick) into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes or until an inserted wooden skewer is clean with a few crumbs clinging. Cool completely, slice and enjoy.
You should add the blending of the avocado into the actual directions. I didn’t read them all the way through before (totally my fault) so I didn’t blend the avocado. But I’m sure it’ll still be delicious!!
Hello! I just made this last night on a whim, and I’m surprised how quick and easy it was and also how amazing it looks, smells and tastes!! I have to admit I was a little lazy and didn’t mash the avocados super well, but that just means there were tiny chunks embedded within which I think kinda works too! Thanks so much for sharing this lovely recipe…I’m definitely going to make another batch of this soon!
Your style of writing leaves much to be desired. By that, I mean I want more.
“Small” loaf pan? What are the demensions of your small pan?
I used an odd sized 7 x 2 loaf pan, one of these pans should work
Can this be made with coconut flour?
i haven’t tried – i’m not sure how coconut flour works compared to all purpose. i have a feeling it might be quite a bit more dense.
Love the recipe. Have you ever ventured to use coconut flour? Texture is different.
hi dawn, i haven’t tried with coconut flour, please let me know if you do!
I’m hoping to make a keto version, so wondering how much coconut or almond flour to use.
Here is my great grandmother’s banana bread recipe which could be like the one you lost: cream one stick butter and one cup sugar add 2eggs one at a time and 2 cups flour one half at a time while beating. (electric mixer is easiest). Add 3ripe bananas mashed first then a tablespoon vanilla extract. Still beating add one level teasp soda and 1/2 teasp salt. Optional: 1/2 to one cup chopped pecans dredged in flour and folded in batter. You can also use chopped, dried fruit like dates or cranberries. Pour in parchment lined loaf pan, bake in 325° preheated oven for@1 hr. C.Trine
Just wondering if I left out the vanilla nbd the sugar could I make this as a savoury bread do you think?
hi mel,
i haven’t tried but i’m not sure if it’ll really work out because it’s more of a quickbread rather than a regular loaf of bread.