The Best Banana Bread

 

I bake a pretty a phenomenal banana bread which, lucky for you, also happens to be foolproof.  My favorite thing about it: 100% of the mixing work can be done with a fork and a single bowl. Also, it is a fantastic way to use the second half of a bunch of bananas, when they've passed the sweet-spot where they're edible.

 

The sweet-spot exists in such a small window that I always have half a bunch of bananas left after they are just too mushy for me to eat.  Unfortunately for Anthony, he prefers bananas mushy.  And yet, if I mention my banana bread, he doesn't try to sneak and eat them before I can mush them and bake them into breakfast.  So, what does that tell you?

 

Here we go!

 

You'll need the following:

3 overripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1.5 cup flour

 

Oh, hey. Preheat your oven to 350F.

 

Now, smash up some bananas with a fork in a medium-sized bowl.

OHMYGOODNESS SHE REMEMBERED TO TAKE PHOTOS.

 

When you find black bits, either put them in your batter and find dark spots in your bread because it won't hurt anyone, or

give them to the pup, because fancy designer dog treats have banana in them, and this way it's fresh!  (You may think this photo is adorable, but once I'd given her a piece of old banana I officially had a kitchen buddy. And she would.not.stop asking for pieces of old banana. Lesson learned. Put her outside after giving her scraps.)

Add your melted butter and sugar, and stir it all together.  Then, sprinkle your baking soda and salt on top, as well as your vanilla.  My teaspoon was dirty, so I was using a half teaspoon. At first I was really upset when this happened:

but then I remembered the Christmas gift my sister-in-law and her family sent us! Not only do we have an enormous bottle of vanilla extract, it is homemade and therefore superior.

Once you've avoided the disaster of running out of an ingredient halfway into a recipe, go ahead and stir the salt, baking soda and vanilla extract in until you can't make them out as individual ingredients anymore.  Add your flour, and stir just until combined.  All said, it'll look like this:

Then pour it into a greased loaf pan.  Mine is inexplicably 9.25 x 5.25, which puzzles me, considering I've only ever seen recipes call for 9x5.  Whatever.  Bake in whatever size you have until you can stab it and it doesn't bleed.  For my weirdo pan, that's 50 minutes.

When the bread is finished, it'll be golden brown.  Since you greased the pan, you should just be able to turn it over onto a cooling rack and produce a perfectly baked loaf of foolproof banana bread.

I have these flexible cutting boards my mother-in-law gave us, and they double as crumb-catchers beneath cooling racks.

 

 

You could add half a cup of chocolate chips or walnuts (or a quarter cup of each!), if you're into that sort of thing.

Leave it on the cooling rack until it's cool (duh), but the crust is generally sturdy enough to withstand immediate slicing.  Serve as is, or with butter or peanut butter. Nothing is better than fresh banana bread, and this version is Best.

You guys got the pun on my last name, right?  Whew.

PS. If you are a perfectionist, don't cry if this happens.  Because it might, and all you have to do is eat the piece stuck in the pan and you're all set and no one will ever find out about it. RELAX.

 

 

 Finally, make sure to take at least three days to eat it. You know the moist (sorry), spongy texture of store-bought awful muffins? It'll get like that! Plus, you just need to control yourself and not eat an entire loaf of bread in three hours. I'm not going to reveal how I know that can happen.

(I can't fix those weird alignment issues, but you're not here for the beautiful webdesign of my stock layout.)