On Sunday afternoon, I noticed that three bananas were getting a touch overripe on my counter. Usually I deal with overripe bananas by peeling them and tossing a ziplock in the freezer for future smoothies. However, over the period of the juice obsession (more on that fizzled obsession to come) my freezer got inundated with unused bananas. There is only so many blended and juiced beverages a girl can take. So this time, this time I opted to make banana bread.
I’ve only attempted banana bread a handful of times before, it is one of my favourite things in the whole world and I’ve managed to fail at it. Repeatedly. But, never one to let failure knock me down on Sunday, October 23, 2011, I tried again. And I’m oh. so. glad I did.
The difference between this time and the last time I made banana bread? Allrecipes.com. Seriously, this recipe for Banana Banana Bread has about 4.6 stars after (wait for it) 6,573 reviews. Six thousand five hundred and seventy three reviews. Six thousand, five hundred and seventy three people have taken the time out of their day to spend a few minutes reviewing this delicious bread recipe. Holy cow!
The other thing about allrecipes.com, the reviewers generally leave helpful tips! Specifically this one: from reviewer Nicole:
I have to say that if the bread seems dry and dense, chances are you stirred it too much, which is easy to do without even thinking about it. With sweet breads and muffins, you should always just stir to moisten. Never over-do it or else you will end up with a drier and denser bread or muffin.
That was my “ah ha” moment. Cream your sugar, butter and banana mixture, but when the wet ingredients hit the dry ingredients… barely mix at all. If you follow that sweet, sweet tip, sweet bread perfection will be in your future!
Banana Banana Bread
Recipe from: allrecipes.com
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas [Note: This was about 3.5 large overripe bananas for me!]
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan. [Note: I lined mine with parcement paper instead. I don’t know why I did that but it worked!]
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. [Note: This is super important! Don’t over mix!!] Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. [Note: It took me 75 minutes, but my stove is a tad unreliable!]
[Note: Bread will keep very moist in a ziplock bag for (at least) 3.5 days!]
P.S. It’s been a bit of a baking bonanza here on the blog, funny thing is – I don’t tend to bake much! Regular recipes coming soon, I promise :)