Banana Bread!

What does one do with a bunch of baby bananas that the in-laws have foisted upon you at the conclusion of a visit?

Eat them right away? Nope, I'm allergic and the hubby forgot we had them. Let them sit in the fridge, ignored for a week? Yes. Get sick of seeing bananas linger in fridge and decide to make banana bread? Why, of course!

It's a gloomy and stormy Sunday morning and I've been wanting to bake something for a while, so banana bread seemed like a good idea. Plus this is a much easier way to get the hubby to eat the darn bananas.

I picked the easiest recipe I could find, which was coincidentally the ONLY recipe for banana bread I've made. I adapted it from the book "Teens Cook" by Megan Carle, Jill Carle, and Judy Carle. And you might be wondering why a 28 year-old woman owns a cookbook targeted towards teens. Well, it's because it had some yummy looking recipes that were simple and easy. Okay and maybe I act like a kid sometimes. So there.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (normally I'd use applesauce instead, but decided to go full-fat)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 medium bananas (I used about 8 baby bananas)
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract (my addition)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
cinnamon (My addition -I sprinkled some in, didn't measure)


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until well-combined. Add the eggs and combine until mixture is smooth. Add bananas and mash in bowl until you only have small pieces left. Combine everything. Add vanilla extract and mix. Now add dry ingredients in batches and make sure to mix thoroughly, getting all the flour incorporated.

Pour or scoop batter into loaf pan. Place pan in oven and bake for 15 minutes at 375, then 45 minutes at 350. Once bread is done, take the bread out of the pan and cool on cooling rack.

Note: despite my banana allergy, I fully intend to try some of this!