High-protein banana bread

• 3 mediumripe bananas · about 300g, mashed
• 1 scoopunflavored whey protein powder · about 25g
• 1 1/2 cupsall-purpose flour
• 1/2 cupGreek yogurt
• 2large eggs
• 1/3 cupmaple syrup
• 1 tbspneutral oil
• 1 tspbaking soda
• 1/2 tspbaking powder
• 1/2 tspsalt
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• 1 tspground cinnamon

Method

1. 1

   Use very ripe, heavily spotted bananas and weigh them

   The bananas are your sugar, moisture, and flavor all at once, so they need to be soft and covered in brown spots. Underripe bananas taste starchy and leave the loaf bland, which tempts you to add more sugar. Weigh them: you want about 300g of peeled banana, roughly three medium, mashed until only a few small lumps remain. This is the single biggest lever on how moist the finished loaf is.

2. 2

   Cap the protein powder at a quarter of the flour, or the loaf turns to rubber

   Protein powder is thirsty and it sets firm, so too much is exactly why high-protein bakes go dry and bouncy. Keep it to no more than a quarter of the total dry weight, here one scoop against a cup and a half of flour. Beyond that ratio you are baking a sponge, not a bread. If you want more protein per slice, add it through Greek yogurt and eggs rather than more powder.

3. 3

   Greek yogurt is the moisture that protein powder takes away

   Half a cup of thick full-fat or 2% Greek yogurt does two jobs: it adds around 5g of protein to the loaf and it puts back the moisture the powder pulls out. It also lends a faint tang that keeps the bread from tasting flat. Stir it into the wet ingredients, not the dry, so it distributes evenly and does not leave pale streaks in the crumb.

4. 4

   Do not overmix once the flour goes in

   Overmixing develops gluten and gives you a tough, tunnelled loaf, and protein powder makes that worse because it tightens the batter further. Fold the dry into the wet with a spatula just until you no longer see dry flour, lumps are fine. Stop the moment it comes together. This is a quick-bread, so treat it like muffins, not like kneaded dough.

5. 5

   Sweeten lightly, because the bananas already carry it

   Ripe bananas plus any sweetened protein powder mean you need far less added sugar than a standard banana bread. A third of a cup of maple syrup or honey is plenty, and it also adds moisture. If your protein powder is already flavored and sweetened, drop the added sugar by half and taste the batter. Restraint here is what keeps it a breakfast bread rather than a cake.

6. 6

   One tablespoon of oil keeps the crumb tender

   It is tempting to make this fat-free, but a single tablespoon of neutral oil or melted butter coats the flour and stops the loaf from baking dense and dry. It is a small amount for a big textural payoff, adding barely any calories per slice. Skip it entirely and the protein powder and yogurt cannot fully compensate; you get a bread that is edible on day one and cardboard by day two.

7. 7

   Bake at 175C/350F and pull it at 91C/195F internal

   Protein-enriched batters set faster and overbake into dryness quickly, so an instant-read thermometer is your best insurance. Bake at a moderate 175C/350F for 45 to 55 minutes and start checking early. The centre is done at about 91C/195F, or when a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs, not wet batter. Tent the top with foil at the 35-minute mark if it is browning too fast.

8. 8

   Cool completely before slicing, or it crumbles

   High-protein loaves are more fragile hot than regular banana bread because the protein network is still firming up. Let it sit in the tin ten minutes, then turn it out onto a rack and cool fully before you cut it. Slice it warm and it tears and gums up on the knife. Cooled, it slices cleanly and the crumb reads moist rather than raw. It also keeps better once fully cooled before storing.