Yummy Banana Bread

Okay, so if the bananas I buy make it long enough to become ripe enough for banana bread, the only thing I make with them is...you guessed it....banana bread.  And you know what? I don't even care because banana bread is deeeelicious and Andy loves it so it's a win-win.  I found the recipe at thefreshloaf.com. Wow! I didn't find a recipe on Pinterest! The majority the recipes I found on Pinterest did not seem this easy or required ingredients I don't always have on hand. Sour cream? Really?  Most of the time the dairy products go bad before we get through half of it. But I digress.

Ingredients you'll need: 
1/2 stick butter, softened (4 tbsp)
3 ripe bananas (I had one large, 2 medium bananas)
2/3 cup white, granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (not called for in the original recipe but in the words of Elle Woods, "it gives it a little something extra, dontcha think?")

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp  ground cinnamon, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using a fork, spoon, potato masher, whatever you have on hand, squish the bananas until they're very mushy and not very chunky. Some chunks are okay but make sure they're small chunks.  I find the potato masher works great to get started and then use a fork to break up the smaller chunks my potato masher couldn't get.

Add the eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla to banana mush and mix the ingredients together.  I don't know what my issue has been with vanilla extract lately...the apple muffin recipe called for WAY too much in my opinion, and this recipe called for none, which is not okay either. Again, I digress.  Also, I did not wait for the butter to soften before adding it so

there were chunks of butter in my batter that didn't combine very well, but the bread still turned out amazing.

I mix all of the dry ingredients together in one bowl before adding them, and even though the original recipe says the cinnamon is optional, it is not. I think the cinnamon complements the sweetness of the bananas and sugar. So, it is not optional.

Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until well-mixed, and then add the rest of the dry ingredients.  I find that doing half at a time doesn't' overwhelm my mixer and my kitchen doesn't get covered in flour.  If you want to stir in any ingredients like nuts or chocolate chips, do it now and stir until well-combined. Keep in mind that a little goes a long way. A half cup of chocolate chips may not seem like a lot in the batter, but when it's poured into the loaf plan it gets a little cozy.  I didn't add any extras this time.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.  Unless you've never baked anything before in your life (which is okay! we all had to start somewhere) it's done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes, and then remove the loaf from the pan and let cool some more. Eat it warm, or don't.  It's great fresh from the oven but it's also great the next day as part of your work lunch. I know from experience.

Until next time, Fire Away!

YUMMY!!