Banana Bread

Banana bread is another one of those recipes that I can remember my grandmas making. A nice, warm piece of fresh banana bread, slathered with melting butter was heaven. But it was equally good the next morning, cool and firm and with a slab of ice-cold margarine spread over top. And from the freezer, only slightly defrosted? A slice of heaven.

Especially since we had The Kid, we've found ourselves many a time with browning bananas that are ready for the trash can. Who wants to eat a mushy banana? Nobody, that's who. But everyone wants to eat banana bread.

Start things off with a little butter and sugar. I used brown and white sugars, but you could use either or.

Cream them together in a big mixing bowl. Then add in two eggs, and mix well.

Next are the bananas. Nice, brown, squishy bananas.

Peel them and drop them in a second bowl. Use a fork to mash them up.

Just like this!

Pour your mashed bananas into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, and give everything a stir.

Next comes the dry ingredients. To start, I add all the dry ingredients except for the flour. I only add half the flour.

Everything gets a gentle mix until barely combined. Then I add in the second half of the flour.

Vanilla comes after. Vanilla always comes after. Don't ever forget the vanilla!

Finally, and this is totally optional, you can throw in the nuts. I really like walnuts in quickbreads, but I didn't happen to have any on hand today. So I used pecans instead. I chopped them into rough pieces.

Once everything is combined (you remembered to scrape the bowl, right?), you can get out your loaf pan. I greased the sides with the wrapper from the butter.

I am totally channeling grandmas everywhere today.

Pour your batter in. Get every little morsel from the bowl!

Use your spoon or a knife to smooth the top of the batter. Then your bread can go into the oven!

An hour later, you'll have your very own loaf of banana bread.

Let it cool a bit, just so it can firm up a little, and then cut yourself a nice, fat slice.

Recipe: Banana Bread
1 stick (8 tbsp.) butter, room temperature
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar

2 eggs

3 old bananas, mashed well

2 c. flour (divided)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugars until combined.

Pour in mashed bananas; stir.

Add half the flour and all the remaining dry ingredients (soda, powder, salt, and cinnamon.) Stir lightly to combine.

Add the remaining flour; stir.

Pour in vanilla and chopped nuts. Stir until combined.

Pour into greased loaf pan (or muffin tin).

Bake for one hour, or until toothpick inserted in the center of bread comes out clean.

Let cool before slicing.