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.
THe flour that you used…is it all-purpose flour or bread flour? Can I use oat flour or some other flour?
it’s all purpose :)
i haven’t tried with oat flour or other alternatives. please let me know if you give it a go and it works out!
I just made your avocado bread. it’s really good. i made a few adjustments out of necessity… first, instead of a small loaf, i made it into 10 cupcakes. I used garam masala instead of cinnamon, and topped some (i’ll do all next time) with toasted sesame seeds. it baked at 325 for 23 minutes, and came out great!
for a super banana bread, may i urge you to try this one, but cut the sugar by about half or a third.
http://blog.openingceremony.com/entry.asp?pid=10638
I replaced a little bit of the flour with cocoa powder and it’s amazing!!!!!
I just made this bread, but I used king author gluten free measure for measure flour instead (for allergy reasons and because it’s what I had in hand) and it took about 10 minutes longer but it came out great. The loaf didn’t last even an hour past slicing. Even my daughter, who is incredibly picky when it comes to this kind of thing, loved it. I will make this often and I will pass it along. Thank you!!!!
Hi! Would love to try this bread, but was wondering if you’ve measurements for flour, sugar in grams instead? Just worried the cup measurements that I have aren’t the same as yours. Thank you!
hi jenny!
the flour is 125 grams and the sugar is 100 grams. hope that helps!
Hi! I was searching for avocado cakes and those I found were baked in a loaf pan. I thought why not look for avocado bread as well? And I found your recipe. I’ve baked one recipe before with olive oil and ricotta among the ingredients. The cake turned out very wet even after spending over an hour in the oven. I just baked your version, omitted cinnamon and added chocolate chips. The bread turned out fantastic! Even my mother loved it. Thanks for a great recipe!
I doubled the recipe and used coconut oil instead of butter. I placed the sugar and oil in the blender to get my creamed mixture. Wasn’t sure what to expect but this is uh-mazing!!.Thank you for this recipe! Will def share and try again. Maybe with some nuts and bananas the next time around?
Thank you for the recipe. Tried it for the second time, love it! I doubled the recipe and used Greek yoghurt instead of butter and half applesauce/half coconut sugar instead of the sugar. It’s stil fluffy and moist and tastes great.
This is funny. I have never seen your blog, but I am about to make avocado bread, (I actually thought I came up with the idea, but I guess not). In any case, I have a similar memory of amazing banana bread as a child, searching and searching to have something similar to this piece I tasted before hopping into the pool one summer. In my case, turns out, it was just zucchini bread. Great recipe! Thanks from Paris.