Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Banana Bread

Happy Wednesday!

My kids got on their bus and now I am cleaning up the kitchen. I spy some bananas getting their brown on. There is no way anyone is my house will be eating them once they get more than a few freckles, so I know what time it is. 

I wonder, do my children purposefully leave them to brown knowing it will bring on a baking session? I would not put it past them, smart little kiddos that they are. But I digress...

I bake banana bread often. It is an quick recipe, utilizing basic ingredients that are always in the house and one loaf will mean a week of lunchbox treats and happy children. 

I have been asked for the recipe many times and have been delinquent in getting it to all the people that have asked. So, here you are friends:

Banana Bread

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. 

Grease up your loaf pan (I use Pam baking spray, but you can use whichever you like. )

Dry Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup of All Purpose Flour - to make this healthier, I now use 1 cup of all purpose flour & 2/3 cup of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour- no one can tell the difference!

2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Wet Ingredients

3 medium very ripe (read BROWN) bananas
2/3 cup sugar (I cut back on this a little bit. Of course, if your bananas aren't ripe enough, use the full amount or a little more)
1/3 cup vegetable oil 
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons of good vanilla extract

Whisk all dry together. In another bowl mix all wet ingredients together. Then add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just blended. 

Bake for 40-45 minutes. This truly depends on the heat of your oven. My oven makes these in 40 minutes. A friend of mine who makes this often as well, her  oven takes closer to 45-50. So set the timer for 40 minutes, test and see where you are.

Now, once you've made this, you can get a little fancy. I sometimes sprinkle in some mini dark chocolate chips (don't use full size, they get too gooey and fall to the bottom since they are so heavy) 

Helpful tip- If you toss the chocolate chips in a tiny bit of flour before you fold them in at the end, they won't sink to the bottom!

You can swirl in a bit of peanut butter. Today, I mixed in a little raspberry and strawberry compote I made for a fruity version. Yummy!

There's the timer! Gotta go check the banana bread. Don't worry, I'll eat a piece for you ; ) 

Bake on!

2 comments:

  1. Send some our way please!

    I'm sure the kids do let them brown on purpose knowing that there awesome mom will bake something scrumptious!

    XOXO,
    Amy Rae

    ReplyDelete