Banana Bread oh Yus!

It seems that I always have bananas on the verge of going off.  They look like the ones you will see below.  I like to do the healthy thing and keep a lot of fruit in the house and I even try to eat most of it.  Bananas are one thing that I can see from a distance that I just won't like it any more.  I don't like to eat them once they are too ripe but I'm not ready to commit to making something with them just yet.  Who knows? Maybe tomorrow I'll be dying for a super ripe banana... not likely.  So I wait until they are really truly beyond tempting for me and I make banana bread.  Or pancakes.  But usually banana bread.  I discovered a really great recipe that I rely on 100% now for banana bread.  It never fails, it makes exactly what I expect.  Sweet and moist inside, slight crust outside, dark colour, firm texture, just perfect.  We eat it warm, with margarine, cold, with margarine, nuked with butter, see the trend here?  We like it anyway but mostly with margarine or butter on it.  The original recipe calls for one cup of sugar which is WAY more than you need.  I have made this with as little as 1/2 cup of sugar, I have used sweetener instead (not recommended) but I usually use 3/4 cup.  You can find the recipe here.

Get those ugly bananas that no one wants to eat. I use 3-4 bananas usually and it makes one perfect loaf.

Gather your ingredients and get the stand mixer ready.  Note my iPad, I use it for 99% of my recipes.  I can access my family website from it and anything else I might need to look up along the way.  This recipe calls for melted butter, which is the best, but I almost always use olive oil.

Toss in those bananas, oil, and the egg, and get it going.

This is what you'll get.  If you have a stand mixer you don't even have to mush up those bananas first.  Add in your vanilla now.

Add in the sugar, salt, and baking soda.

Mix it up just a bit then add the flour.  It will be a thick batter type deal.

Grease your bread pan to get it ready for all that banana heaven.

Pour it all in and smooth out the top some.  It will end up peaking up in the middle, that is fine.  This bakes for a whole hour.  Time for a coffee or to plan supper or whatever.

Oh my, look at that!  I let it cook in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out to finish cooling.  Unless I'm impatient.  Then I turn it out and hack a big hot slab off and eat it while it's burning me.  Which ever works for you, I won't judge.

This bread freezes really well, goes into lunches like a dream, and never lasts long!