Banana bread is one thing I just can’t seem to keep in the house. I made a batch this afternoon, and already a whole loaf is practically gone! All four of us LOVE the stuff, and enjoy it as a breakfast, snack, or dessert! Since it is so wildly popular at our house, I wanted to share my recipe with you. Everyone probably has a basic banana bread recipe that they use, but for some reason, this old classic of mine never fails. It produces two perfectly moist loaves EVERY time!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. stick margarine

2 large eggs

4-5 mashed bananas (I always just throw my “too brown to eat” bananas in my freezer, and then pull them out when I want to make banana bread. You can simply run them under hot water, or pop them in your microwave for a few seconds. I don’t even mash them up. I let my KitchenAid mixer do that for me!)

1/2 c. buttermilk (Seriously, who keeps this on hand? I just put a teaspoon or two of lemon juice into regular milk, and wait a minute or so until it starts to curdle a bit.)

1 teaspoon vanilla (and I always throw in a bit extra..I LOVE vanilla!)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

If you wanted to go ahead and ruin this perfectly wonderful bread with nuts, you could add 1 cup of nuts to your batter. I however am very allergic to walnuts, and dislike nuts in general. If you are “nutty” over them however, feel free to add them. =)

Cream together your sugar and butter. Really give it a good mix, until it is light and fluffy. This is an important step! Stir in your eggs, and mix well. Add the milk and vanilla, and mix again. Add your bananas. I like to just break up my frozen bananas a bit, and then let my mixer do the hard work. There really is no need to add a separate step of mashing them up first!  Mix your batter until the bananas are nicely incorporated.

Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Pour your batter into two greased (I use Pam) loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Sometimes, I also like to make these in my Pampered Chef mini loaf pans.

This is the BEST banana bread I have ever had, and it gets rave reviews over here at the Lindner house. So, enjoy the Fall weather we are having, and bake up a few loaves for your family! They will love you for it, and what a fun treat to send in your child’s lunch box, or to serve as an after-school snack! Happy Baking!!