My Favorite Moist Banana Bread

This is a recipe originally developed by Sally's Baking Addiction. Of all the online recipes that I have tried (banana bread is one of my favorite desserts), this one yeilded the bread with the most flavor and the best texture. The ingredients and instructions are similar to those on her website, with the exception of some additions that I usually make.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinammon
• 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup (80g) plain yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
• 2 cups (460g) mashed bananas (about 4 large ripe bananas)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• optional: 3/4 cup (100g) chopped pecans or walnuts

Instructions:

1. Grease a metal 9x5 inch pan with butter on nonstick spray. Adjust the oven rack to a lower third position and preheat the ove nto 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar together until smooth and creamy. This will take 2 minutes on high speed. Lower the speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the yogurt, mashed bananas, and vanilla extract until combined.
4. With the mixer on low speed, slowly beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no flour pockets remain. Fold in nuts. At this stage, I also chop some bananas and fold them in.
5. Pour and spread the batter into the prepared pan. If you intend to impress someone with this bread, split a banana lengthwise and gently place it on the surface of the cake. Sprinkle some extra cinammon powder and nuts on the top.
6. Bake for 60-65 minutes, covering the bread with aluminum foil about halfway to prevent excessive browning and dyrness.
7. Remove the bread, wait for it to cool, and enjoy!

Sample Images:

Recipe Websites:

• Bon Apetit: The singlemost annoying thing about recipe websites by individuals is the long essay before the ingredients and instructions. I think Bon Apetit tends to avoid that (or does it to a lesser degree). This makes for a much more enjoyable experience for me on their website. I also think their instructions are extremely detailed. Making the ingredients bold in the instructions provides a good overview for experienced cooks, but the meticulous attention to detail means that beginners can still follow the recipe.
• AllRecipes: I don't often use AllRecipes (nor do I cook that often in general), but I usually avoid this website because of how many ads and popups you're immediately bombarded with. However, once you make it past that, the actual recipe page is nicely done. There is no beginning essay, and it features a "find locally" function that could be more helpful if making recipes with more uncommon ingredients. The directions are often succinet. They lack the detail that Bon Apetit gives, but they have enough information to guide the viewer.
• Half-Baked Harvest: I think this website uses a similar template website that Sally's Baking Addiction uses, as they have pretty similar ingredients list. They give you the option to check whichever ingredients you have or don't have. I think its a great feature, from an organization standpoint. Almost all recipes give the option to print, and if you mark whatever ingrdients you have, you cna treat the recipe as a sort of grocery list (with Jupiter? I've never seen them before)

Non-Recipe Websites:

• Cala: I think it would make sense for my recipe to go with a color pallete that's muted/brown/yellow. This website uses a similar pallete to the one I imagine myself using (although theirs is maybe more vibrant than I think mine will end up being). I also like their consistency with the photography. I know that is usually expected of restaurants and their menu items, but I think the consistency provides an anchor point to the website.
• WordStone: I think this website was able to blend type beautifully, in many interesting ways. I struggle to see how their layout could translate to a recipe website, since they're not usually presented in this way, but I think there's a lot to learn from the minor typographic choices as well as the relationship between their different bodies of text.
• Somvai: This website's layout could very easily become one for a recipe website. It would be simple to place the pictures on one side and the words on the other like they do. I wonder if it would achieve the same effect, however, since their website is very monotonous and clean, whereas a recipe would be more colorful and variable. I do like the scrolling effect (although I'm unsure of whether that can be accomplished with only HTML/CSS).