Red Velvet Banana Bread🍌

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Red velvet banana bread made from scratch with ripe bananas and the flavors of banana bread and a red velvet bread in each bite. The swirl creates a perfect balance of both flavors on your tongue. It’s easy to make and perfect for sharing with family and friends as a dessert or paired with a cup of coffee!

Recipe Highlights

• How it taste: Red velvet banana bread is a special blend of banana bread and a red velvet loaf. The red swirls of the bread are the flavorful red velvet swirls in the bread. But, when you take a bite of the non-red parts you’re hit with the full flavor of banana bread. The recipe was tested several times until both flavors were present when eating.
• Skill level: This quick bread recipe is super easy. It’ll require a bit more work than a box cake but it’s not difficult and very beginner friendly.
• Storage: This red velvet banana bread keeps fry well in the fridge, on the counter or even frozen.

Ingredient tips

• Banana: Ripe bananas are important to get that banana flavor. Green bananas taste very starchy and they are much harder in texture. For tips on how to ripen your bananas faster, I’ll include a section for that below.
• All-purpose flour: I haven’t tried this recipe with any other flour. All-purpose flour is perfect for this recipe and any swaps will change the texture and outcome drastically.
• Eggs: There are eggs in the recipe. Bananas can serve as an egg replacement but I haven’t tested this recipe without eggs. Honestly, I’m pretty certain you can’t skip them because only half of the batter contains bananas. If you add bananas to the rest of the batter then the red velvet portion is just a waste of time because you won’t taste it.
• Buttermilk: This gives the red velvet banana bread that true red velvet flavor. Banana bread taste great with buttermilk and I have a recipe to prove it! You can swap out the buttermilk for whole milk but the texture may be different and the batter will probably be thinner. I have not tested with anything other than buttermilk to confirm.
• Cocoa: Used in the red velvet portion of the banana bread, unsweetened cocoa powder is used. You can swap this out with dutch processed cocoa without any problems at all. Dutch cocoa will provide a richer cocoa flavor and darker color.
• Red food coloring: A classic ingredient in red velvet cake but not needed if you don’t like dye. The color simply lets your brain know it’s red velvet. The flavor is already there.

Chef’s tips

• Do not over swirl the batter! This is crucial because the banana bread and red velvet portion have to be separate in order to taste them both. Banana is such a strong flavor and in my testing trying to combine the batters only resulted in lack luster flavor from the red velvet portion.
• Allow the bread to cool a bit before removing it from the pan. You can destroy a perfect bake by moving the hot bread when it’s fresh out of the oven. Allow it to sit in the loaf pan for 15-20 minutes after baking before trying to remove the loaf.

How To Make Red Velvet Banana Bread

1. Start by making the main batter. You’ll need to combine the dry and wet ingredients then mix until smooth.
2. Now, you’ll separate the batter into two. One portion, you’ll add cocoa powder and red food coloring. The second portion, you’ll whisk in mashed bananas.
3. In a lined loaf pan, alternate adding in the batters. Then, do a light swirl with a knife.
4. Place the loaf pan in the oven and bake until it’s risen completely and cooked through the center.

How to ripen bananas quickly

There are a few tricks and one is tossing them in a bag with an apple. Seal the bag and the gases between the two will speed up the process. You can do it without the apple as well.

Another option and the quickest is baking the bananas in the oven. Bake them at 300F for 15 minutes on a lined sheet pan. Once they are black, remove from the oven and allow them to cool before mashing.

Recipes to use ripe bananas

• Pumpkin Banana Muffins
• Banana Oatmeal Bars
• Apple Banana Bread
• Banana Bars
• Banana Oatmeal Cookies
• Peanut Butter Banana Bread
• Zucchini Banana Bread
• Chocolate Strawberry Banana Bread
• Cream Cheese Banana Bread

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