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Cooking for a crowd

Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread for 24

These are estimates. They come from rules of thumb, not a recipe we tested at this size. Go by the recipe's own doneness cues and a thermometer, and taste as you go.

The plan

Make 3 batches of the recipe as written: about 30 servings (6 to spare).

The recipe serves 10. How it cooks: baked in pans.

Pans, pots and the oven

  • 3 × 9x5-inch loaf.
  • A home oven fits 4 at a time (two per rack on two racks), so that's 1 round in one oven.

Timing

  • Prep: about 50 minutes of hands-on work for 3 batches (the recipe's 20 minutes each, a little faster once you're set up).
  • Oven: about 1 hour 12 minutes, one round.
  • With both racks full the oven bakes less evenly: swap the pans between racks and turn them halfway through, and expect about 5 to 10 minutes more than the recipe says. Go by its doneness cue, not the clock.

Good to know

  • Make it as 3 separate batches of the recipe as written, one 9x5-inch loaf at a time (two at once if your mixer or bowl holds a double batch). The leavening, salt and spices in each batch stay as measured.
  • Don't put two batches in one deeper pan: it takes much longer and the middle can stay underdone. A bigger, shallower pan works if you rescale for it with the pan size converter.
  • Leavening stays as measured in each batch, which is why baked goods go batch by batch.

Using bigger or different pans? The pan size converter rescales the recipe for them.

Ingredients for about 30

The totals to shop for. Each batch uses the recipe's own amounts, so mix and season them one batch at a time.

  • Batter
  • 9 large ripe bananas, very spotty, about 1 1/2 cups mashed
  • 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled, plus a little for the pan
  • 2 ¼ cups light brown sugar, packed
  • 6 large eggs, room temperature
  • ¾ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 5 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon for tossing
  • 1 tbsp baking soda
  • 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
  • Mix-ins
  • 2 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 ½ cups walnuts, chopped
  • 3 tbsp turbinado or granulated sugar, for the top

Rounded to kitchen measures. Eggs are rounded up to whole eggs.

Keeping a big batch safe

Back to the recipe More recipes for a crowd

How we work it out

  1. How it cooks decides how it grows. Baked dishes and casseroles are made as separate batches of the recipe as written, one pan's worth at a time. Soups, stews and chili go in one bigger pot, or several. Slow cooker and pressure cooker recipes get one batch per cooker or per round. Roasts become more roasts, not a bigger one. Skillet, griddle, grill and fried recipes cook in rounds.
  2. Pans and the oven. We assume a home oven with two racks, two baking dishes or cake pans per rack, or one sheet pan per rack. More pans than that means another round in the oven.
  3. Pots. The volume comes from the weight of the ingredients (about a liter for each kilogram; dry pasta, rice and grains count 2½ times, since they soak up water), in a pot no more than 3/4 full.
  4. What we don't simply multiply. Salt: add 3/4, taste, then the rest. Cayenne, chiles and hot sauce: start with 2/3. Ground spices and dried herbs: start with 3/4 once it's 3 batches or more. Bay leaves and other whole spices: about half the extra. Baking soda, baking powder and yeast: batch by batch. Frying oil and the water for boiling: by the pot, not the recipe. A big pot of soup or stew: hold back a tenth of the liquid.
  5. Timing. Each extra batch adds about 3/4 of the recipe's prep time. A big pot takes about 3 more minutes per extra quart to come to a simmer on one burner. Meat browns in batches no bigger than the recipe's. A full oven bakes a little slower: swap and turn the pans halfway, and allow 5 to 10 minutes more.

These are our rules of thumb, not tests of each recipe at each size. The recipe's own doneness cues and a thermometer come first.