Banana Bread

Life gotten really exciting and busy,when around the 4th of July, TWO of my children got engaged to be married.  My daughter's wedding date is September 28th and my son's is November 2nd.  We've been going full tilt ever since, taking care of the many details of a wedding and all that goes with it!

For my daughter's reception one of the refreshments will be a variety of breads.  As a result I'm testing out recipes and making a bunch of the good ones to freeze and then serve at the reception.

I came across this on www.foodnetwork.com   I tried it out on my family and they all loved it!
The entire loaf disappeared in less than 24 hours.  This is absolutely not a low-cal, healthy version
but it's definitely a delicious version of banana bread. I'm sure the great flavor has something to do with the cube of butter and cup of sugar in each loaf.  It had five stars and I think it deserved it!

So it's looking like the next few posts here will be various breads and I'll let you know what I've learned in the process.  Happy cooking and baking, . . .

What you need:

1 cube butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe banana

1 Tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. Butter or coat with cooking spray 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

3. Cream the butter and sugar  with mixer until light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. In a small bowl, mash the bananas.  I like to use a potato masher, its quick and easy.

6.  Add milk and ground cinnamon and continue to mix together with masher.

7. Add to creamed butter and sugar and mix well.

8.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

9.  Mix just until dry mixture disappears and

10.  Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake approx. 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

11. Set pan aside on cooling rack for about ten minutes then turn out banana bread to cool completely before slicing.  Now your all set to enjoy a slice!

The first time I made this I let it bake for the full 70 minutes, it was a little more well done on the edges then I prefer.  The second time I made it I only baked it for an hour and it came out perfect.

Baking time will depend on your oven, so I would just check it after its been baking for an hour and let it bake til golden brown and the tooth pick comes out clean.

This is a good old time recipe that's a classic and is good to eat anytime. 

It's easy and a great thing to do with bananas that have gotten a bit too ripe. 

You could also do two small loaf pans instead of one large loaf pan.