Banana Bread

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like banana bread, do you?  Whenever I have really ripe bananas, this is my go-to, tried and true banana bread recipe.  The fact that it is so basic doesn’t take anything away from how delicious it is.

My good friend Penny passed the recipe along to me some 25 years ago, and I have been happily making it ever since.  She told me that after she had made it for the first time her husband told her to throw away all the other banana bread recipes.  He was definitely onto something!

This banana bread is dense, moist and loaded with banana flavor.  If yours isn’t, I highly recommend you give this recipe a try.  Excuse me, I’m off to make some coffee and enjoy another piece.

Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • 3 very ripe bananas
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 stick butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of chopped nuts, optional


Directions

Mash the bananas with a fork.  Add the baking soda to the bananas and set aside for at least 10 minutes.

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla and mix well.  Add the banana mixture alternately with the flour to the creamed mixture.  You can mix this as a cake rather than muffins (in other words, don’t worry too much about overbeating).  Fold in the nuts if using.

Pour into greased and floured long, skinny loaf pan (13″x4″) and bake at 350o for 40 to 45 mins.

Fran’s Notes

The original recipe called for baking it in two 4½ x 8½ loaf pans, but the loaves were kind of skimpy.  I tried baking it in one 9 x 5 loaf pan, but the middle didn’t cook while the outside got too dark.  Then I tried baking it in my long 13x 4 loaf pan, and that worked beautifully. An angel food cake pan would probably work if you don’t have a long loaf pan.  You’ll just have to experiment with the baking time.

Also, as with any recipe calling for ripe bananas, be sure your bananas are really ripe so that you’ll have nice strong banana flavor in your final product.  I like to let mine get just about to the fruit fly stage!

Source:  My good friend and fellow twin mom, Penny

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