Banana Bread

I promised several folks I would add my holiday banana bread recipe to the site so they could access it. Banana bread is something I have been making (and gifting) for years now. For some reason, it just has a holiday-feel about it. :) I have gotten requests for chocolate-chip banana bread so I will have to experiment with that this year. For now, the traditional recipe ...

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup softened butter

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 eggs

- 3 medium mashed ripe bananas

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Cream butter and sugar together. Make sure you soften the butter first. I use my KitchenAid mixer on the stir setting to cream them together. Add one egg at a time, beating until smooth. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas. Then add the mashed bananas to the butter/sugar/egg mixture. In another bowl, combine your dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt (and walnuts if you choose to add them). Add this to the other ingredients, slowly, stirring only to moisten. I leave my KitchenAid mixer on the stir setting and slowly add the flour mixture a little at a time.

Grease your loaf pan. I like Wilton's cake release but you can use butter or oil. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake in 350 degrees for about an hour. The baking time will vary. Make sure you check it early and take it out when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes. Remove from loaf pan and let it cool on a wire rack.

Useful Tip

I have had trouble getting the banana bread to cook evenly in my oven. The sides would be too done and right in the center it would be undercooked. If you are experiencing the same, try adding a piece of aluminum foil to the top of the banana bread while it's baking, but wait until it has risen and the top of the bread is cooked so it won't stick to the foil.