Banana Bread

I was recently over at my sister Paula's house for dinner with my family and she was baking banana bread and gave us one to take home - it was delicious! I can't even remember the last time I made banana bread. I know it's so simple to make but it's just one of those things I never made. If I used bananas for anything it was muffins. This morning I had some bananas that were overly ripe and looked perfect for baking, so I got the recipe that she used and made it while my toddlers were still eating breakfast so they could watch. Paula said she loves this recipe because it's easy and simple and you can make it plain like she did and eat it with cream cheese, or add nuts or chocolate chips or whatever you like to it. She added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the recipe which I thought tasted good, so I included it below.

I love recipes that you can just mix with a spoon - quick to make and easy to cleanup. I baked this in my small Breville oven and thought that the outside looked a bit overdone, but the inside was perfect. Next time I will bake it in my regular oven and see how it comes out.

If you like banana bread or just need to use up some ripe bananas, give this simple recipe a try! My kids and my husband really enjoyed it so I'm sure I will be making it a lot.

Banana Bread

Recipe Courtesy Williams-Sonoma

 

Use very ripe bananas to make this easy banana bread. This is a great recipe to make with kids!

 

 

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

3 medium very ripe bananas, peeled

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

 

 

Preheat an oven to 350°. Grease an 8½”x4½” metal loaf pan with butter or Crisco.

In a bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, smash the bananas with a fork. Add the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and beat with the wooden spoon until well blended.

Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir just until blended.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with the wooden spoon. Put the pan in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it, about 45 minutes.

Using oven mitts, remove the pan from the oven, set it on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 20 minutes.

Gently run a table knife along the inside edge of the pan to loosen the bread from the sides.

Using oven mitts, turn the pan on its side and slip the loaf out onto the wire rack. Let the loaf cool for 15 minutes before serving.

 

Makes 1 loaf.