Banana Bread

I like to slice bananas into cereal, pancakes and ice cream, I use them in my smoothies and I eat them plain for a snack.  When I eat them plain, I have to say I'm a little particular about their stage of ripeness.  (I can hear my dad's voice, full of sarcasm, saying "You?! Particular? Never!"  lol)

Because I am 'particular', I have become somewhat of a connoisseur of achieving ideal banana ripeness.  Here are a couple of tricks I use for banana maintenance.

• First, don't buy all your bananas from the same bunch.  Buy bananas in various stages of ripeness so you have some to eat now and others which will ripen to eat later.
• To ripen bananas more quickly, leave them on the counter in a bag with a tomato or an apple.  Those fruits give off a gas (ethylene) which will speed up the ripening of the banana.
• To slow the ripening of a banana, put it in the fridge.  Don't be put off by the color of the peel.  It will continue to turn brown, but the banana inside is still good for a week or more.
• When peeling a banana (get ready to have your mind blown), start peeling from the opposite end.  Pinch the butt end (opposite the stem) so it cracks and then pull the peel down from there.  This will prevent crushing the fruit as you try to split the top stem (the butt end splits a lot easier) and will also prevent those annoying little banana strings which stick to the side of the banana when you peel it from the top.
• If your bananas do end up getting too soft to eat, don't throw them out!  Freeze them for later to use in smoothies or in recipes like this!

Banana Bread

1 loaf

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter - room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas (I used 1 ripe, 3 frozen)
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Butter a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat eggs into the bowl one at a time.  Add the bananas, milk and cinnamon and mash with a fork.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt).  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until the flour is only just incorporated.

Pour your batter into the prepared pan and bake 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Let cool completely before slicing.

A thawed frozen banana is horrible to look at but this photo makes me laugh.  

Don't let it detract you from trying this recipe, which I promise is a yummy one!