Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
News

Yid.Dish: Banana Bread

Banana Bread from Selma Zuckerman

I got many thumbs up for this banana bread, which I made lower fat and just as tasty by substituting half of the butter for applesauce, and using non-fat yogurt instead of buttermilk or sour cream.

Butter or vegetable cooking spray, for greasing the pan

3 cups flour, plus extra for flouring the pan (I used white wheat flour)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1/3 cup (5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup applesauce

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

yolk of 1 large egg, at room temperature *save the white for breakfast!

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 medium-sized bananas) *I think I used two, and it was just fine.

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup yogurt

3/4 chopped pecans or walnuts

3/4 raisins *I used chocolate chips.

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a large 10 inch loaf pan.

2) Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a medium-size bowl. Set it aside.

3) Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and egg yolk, one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl down after each addition. Blend in the mashed bananas and vanilla extract.Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the yogurt and applesauce in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixtures. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips or raisins if using.

4) Transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf pan and bake until it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours (mine took less, so check often).

5) Transfer the pan to a wire rack, and cool for 10 minutes. Loosen the loaf by running a knife around the edges, remove it from the pan, and transfer it to the rack to cool completely.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.