Favorite Banana Bread

I'm really picky about banana bread. It isn't a flavor thing. Its a texture thing. I LOVE this banana bread though. Especially with some peanut butter smeared on top! Now, I thought for a long time that it just might be that its that good of a recipe. But I actually branched out to try a new oil-based recipe recently and found that it might be more of a method thing that makes me like or dislike any given banana bread. See when I copied this recipe of Aunt Janet E.'s out of my mom's collection 15+ years ago, it didn't give me any particular direction about how to incorporate the bananas. So I just broke my bananas into chunks, threw them in there, and mixed it with my hand-mixer until it looked pretty well mixed. I DID NOT pre-mash bananas. I used this same method with the oil-based recipe and got a similar texture to my bread. So, I'm a firm advocate of just using my hand mixer to mix in the bananas and not mashing them! Try it and see what you think! If you don't have a mixer and are just mixing by hand with a spoon, try just finely dicing the bananas and then beating them in. Like I said in the Blueberry Muffin post, this is my favorite recipe but I'll have an oil-based recipe coming soon!

Favorite Banana Bread
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3 overripe bananas

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. Batter will be thick. Break up bananas into 1 inch pieces or so and throw into the batter. Using your mixer, beat bananas in. Don't worry if there are some small chunks in there! Batter will thin a lot as you mix in the bananas. Grease and flour two 7x3 inch loaf pans (or use one large 9x5 loaf pan). Bake at 350F (180C) for 45-50 minutes. Bread will be dark and you can test for doneness by inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. (May take longer if baking in one large loaf pan.)

Notes: Add nuts or chocolate chips! But its excellent on its own. I sometimes make this into muffins, but it is best as bread. Muffins cook in half the time and I feel the banana flavor doesn't have long enough to develop. But they are still good, don't get me wrong! Overripe bananas mix in the easiest and give the best flavor, but you can use ones that are not browning yet and it will still be good!