Banana Bread

id="recipetitle"class="fn">Banana Bread

I know what you're thinking "big deal, its just a banana bread recipe" - WRONG. This is banana bread that gets people into trouble when they tell their mothers that my banana bread is the best they have ever had. I use baking to make friends and impress men, and this is a "go-to" because its easy. Who doesn't have bananas in their freezer at any given time?

Here it is:

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (don't measure, just use 4) 
1/2 cup buttermilk *
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

* I will now share with you an earth shattering baking tip. Buttermilk, sour cream, and plain yogurt can be used interchangeably with ANY recipe. Substitutes are exactly one-to-one. I use which ever of the three I happen to have in my fridge at the time.


DIRECTIONS

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bottom only of 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches. People wonder how I get the bottom of the banana bread to taste almost (yes almost) as good as the top. I use Pam and flour to grease the bottom.

2) Mix sugar and butter in your stand-up mixer (if you don't have one, that's unfortunate, its a gift from god). Add eggs and mix until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Pour into pan.

3) Bake about 1 1/4 hours, although I find it usually takes a little bit longer than this. Maybe it's just my oven. Just make sure to do the toothpick test. When you stick it in the center, it should come out clean. Cool 10 minutes before attempting to remove it from the pan. You should probably wait until it has completely cooled before you try to slice it, but who does that? When you decide to slice it when its still hot, know that you are going to make a bit of a mess of it. Just try not to get angry, eat the imperfect slices right away and you'll be fine.

 

I have to tell you about this one time that I only had three frozen bananas. I thought I was hooped because I've always believed that fresh bananas just did not have the necessary flavor for a wicked banana bread. I took a chance, and threw in one recently purchased banana (not green, but definitely not on the ripe side). The finished product blew my mind. My brother (baking critic) just about lost his shit over it. He said he could actually taste the different bananas within it and thus, the depth of flavor was extraordinary.