Banana Bread

When faced with a few seemingly very ripe (skins were dark, but they were still pretty firm) bananas, I was thinking about what I might want to make with them and realized that I have never posted a recipe for Banana Bread. I've posted a Chocolate Banana Bread (playing with Chocolate Cream of Wheat) a Chocolate-Pineapple Banana Bread, and even a Coconut-Banana-Oatmeal Bread, but never a plain ol' regular Banana Bread. I had a fabulous recipe years ago but sadly lost it somewhere along the line. That was more of a traditional super-moist quick-bread recipe. 

This recipe is a little different. I use about half the oil and sugar most recipes call for, brown sugar instead of white, and included a bit of cinnamon, which accounts for the color. When mixing everything together, you may first think it's going to be dry, but trust me - once the bananas are added and the bread is baked, it turns out with a very light texture and not dry at all. 

INGREDIENTS :

1 1/2 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

1 t cinnamon

2 eggs

1/4 c canola oil (or veg)

1 t vanilla

1/2 c brown sugar

Single-serve carton of plain or vanilla yogurt

   (roughly 1/2 c if portioning from large container)

2 ripe bananas

1. In one bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. In a second bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla, brown sugar, and yogurt.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, until just combined.
4. Mash and stir in the bananas. I like to use a fork to mash them on a sheet of waxed paper so I can easily slide them into the bowl and not have additional clean up to do.
5. Spray, grease, or line a loaf pan with parchment - I like to use PAM Baking for spraying my pans, but I happened to be out, so I went with parchment.
6. Bake at 350 for about an hour until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean - time will vary depending on your oven, the size of your pan, etc.
7. Let rest in pan for about 10" before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

It's funny, I almost always spread a little cream cheese on a slice of zucchini or date-nut bread, but not on banana or cranberry bread. I decided at the last minute to throw on a little schmear - good, but not necessary.