Spoon flour into your measuring cup and level it off. Scooping directly with the cup packs the flour and leads to dry, dense bread.

The bananas should be almost entirely black and quite squishy. This maximizes their natural sugars and moisture.

Fold the dry mix into the wet mix with a spatula until just combined. Streaks of flour are okay! Overmixing makes the cake tough.

If the top is browning too quickly but the center is still raw, loosely tent a piece of aluminum foil over the loaf pan for the last 15 minutes.

Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack. Cutting it while piping hot will compress the crumb and make it gummy.