banana nut bread

As some of you may know I have a tendency to let bananas sit for a tad bit too long which means I won’t eat them – I prefer my bananas not to have any spots on them – but instead I bake with them. Over the course of my blogging I have made Marbled Nutella Banana Bread, Banana & Chocolate Cupcakes, Banana Chocolate Chip & Nut Muffins, Banana Cream Pie, and the first banana recipe I posted, Banana Nut Bread. Which I just made again, although the first time I made it I followed the recipe exactly and ended up with two loaves, this time though I only had three of the six called for bananas so I decided to halve the recipe and am happy to say it worked out perfectly, so I decided to share that with you today. I must say I never particularly cared for Banana Bread until I made it myself and this recipe was definitely key to me liking it. It’s the perfect amount of banana flavor and sweetness.

Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups flour

3 large bananas, very ripe, mashed

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts*

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 F & grease one loaf pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the cream mixture. Stir in the bananas and chopped walnuts.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

*The original recipe called for pecans

I have never a big fan of Banana Nut Bread. The few times I bought it it tasted a bit artificial to me. But last summer when some bananas I had started to overripe I decided to try out a recipe I came across on the internet. Recently when some bananas I bought couldn’t withstand the heat of the summer and started to ripen a little too quickly I decided to bake up two loaves to put them to good use. I prefer my bananas to be yellow with a tad hint of green to them. And yes I know that’s not the optimal time to eat them but for some reason I just cannot stomach them otherwise.

The overripe bananas.

They didn’t look like much once they were mashed up.

After creaming together the butter and sugar then adding the eggs and the dry ingredients my batter was pretty thick.

But once I added in the mashed up bananas my batter turned into something that was easily pourable into my prepared pans.

And after a little over an hour in the oven both of my loaves were ready and I must say they tasted delicious.

Favorite Banana Nut Bread

From About.com

Cook Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter or Margarine*

2 Cups Sugar

4 Eggs

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

2 Teaspoons Baking Soda

4 Cups Flour

6 Large Bananas, very ripe, mashes

1 Cup Finely chopped Pecans**

Preparation

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift dry ingredients together; add to creamed mixture. Stir in bananas and chopped pecans.

Pour banana nut bread batter into 2 well-greased loaf pans; bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This banana nut bread recipe makes 2 loaves.

*I opted to use butter

**Instead of pecans I used walnuts