Waste Not, Want Not… or making Banana Bread

I just love the idea of Banana Bread.  You take something you’d normally throw out and voila, you turn it into a delicious treat.  At our home, an old banana rarely tossed out.  And when you have a Banana Bread recipe as good as mine, you’ll be tempted to buy extra bananas and hope they don’t get eaten.  In my experience, the blacker the banana, the better the bread.  But I do draw the line when they start to mold…

Here’s the recipe:

Best Banana Bread

¾ cup softened butter
1 ½ cup sugar
4 ripe bananas mashed
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 cups flour
½ cup buttermilk
Optional:  toasted chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Spray 2 bread pans (9×5) with nonstick cooking spray and then dust pans with granulated sugar.  Set aside.  Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Whisk in the eggs, mashed banana and vanilla.  Add soda and salt and mix well. Add in one cup flour until incorporated, the buttermilk, then last cup of flour.  Pour evenly into the bread pans and top with toasted chopped pecans or walnuts.

Bake at 325 degrees for 40- 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Be sure to click over to my Tasty Kitchen Recipe Box for my Printable Recipe.

Here’s a few other tips or options:

• If you just can’t wait for your bananas to go black, place yellow (not green) unpeeled bananas on a baking sheet and place in a heated oven for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Peel and mash.
• My dad sometimes chunks a ripe but firm banana and adds it to the batter.
• I have a neighbor who uses Banana Bread to make French Toast.  How yummy does that sound.

I just want to thank my mother.  Not only did she provide this delicious recipe, but she taught me how to cook (among many other things.)