Banana Bread

 

I've always had a fear for baking with bananas, but after making the Hummingbird Cupcakes, a while ago I actually fell in love with it. The only problem is having ripe bananas which I can use for baking. You see, my girls love bananas, it's impossible for them to see a banana and not eat it. Which makes sure that I never ever have any bananas left over, which have had enough time to become really ripe.

So, when I suddenly found myself with a whole bunch of very ripe bananas, I was shocked. And then I danced with joy! Now I could finally bake something with bananas again! I decided not to leave anything to fate and began a search for a nice banana recipe. For some time I've been thinking about a banana bread and so with a mission I searched through cookbooks and online.

After looking over several recipes, I found a winner: jacked-up banana bread by Smitten Kitchen. I've read some of her recipes before, but had never actually made one. So I was curious to see if the recipe would turn out okay. It did.

It was warm, moist, full of flavor, the top was slightly crunchy and it was gone all to soon.... I didn't add the bourbon, but that was mostly because I didn't have any. I think adding chopped walnuts would go great with this recipe, but unfortunately... I didn't have any. Maybe next time! Because I will definitely make this again. It was so easy. It doesn't require a mixer, you can just stir everything by hand... or you can be like me and let your baby girl do all the stirring. That's how easy it was!

I used hot air circulation on my oven which shortened the baking time by 10 minutes. I think it would go better with out the hot air circulation.
The top was slightly too dark. But all in all I was very pleased with the end result!

Recipe

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 to 4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar (depending on the level of sweetness you prefer)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup flour

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

Add the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, mix, then add the spices and mix again.

Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

Add the flour, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan.

Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or if you use hot air circulation 40 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

You can start eating when it's still warm but it also tastes great cold!