banana bread

But not just banana bread - also, banana muffins! I tragically only have two loaf pans, but decided to make a triple batch (more on that later!), so I went with (invented) the ever-so-portable muffin version of my favourite banana bread recipe.

We had a ludicrous amount of bananas in the freezer - the boy likes to take them to work and then not eat them, and when they get all bruisy I pop them in the freezer to use in baking. Well, obviously I hadn't made anything with bananas in a while, as we had 9 of them in there! I figured it was time to clear them out since they were starting to take over, and had enough for a triple batch of banana bread. I really took my mixer to the limit on this one, guys. Seriously, I probably wouldn't do more than a double. I've got the Professional HD  or whatever it's called, by KitchenAid, and I was starting to worry for its poor little motor. Lesson of the day: don't try to use all the bananas in one go. But it all worked out in the end, and we had loads of delicious banana bread (and banana bread muffins) to feast on...and now you can too!

Banana Bread (and/or Muffins)

Makes one loaf

Ingredients:
3 bananas
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil (I used olive oil, so you can pretty much use any kind I'd say)
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

First up, preheat the oven to 350°F, and grease/flour your loaf pan.

Then, peel your bananas and put them into the bowl of your mixer. (If they're still frozen, like mine were, you might want to pull them out ahead of time and let them thaw first, otherwise they're pretty tricky to peel. I bet you can guess how I found that out!) You can mash them up by hand first (well, with a potato masher, unless you want to get really messy!), but I'm lazy. Add your eggs, and mix on medium-low until the bananas are more like baby food.

Then, add in the sugar and oil, and mix until it's all incorporated.

Next, sift together all your dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the banana concoction, and beat until it's just barely mixed in, then, pour the mixture into your loaf pan (or divide it between loaf and muffin pans, whatever floats your boat!) and bake.

If you're doing muffins, mine took about 20 minutes. For actual loaves, bake them for 55-60 minutes. The top will go tasty and dark golden, and start to crack a bit. That just means it's delicious.

I personally can't wait for the loaf to cool for more than 10 minutes, because I really love banana bread. Plus, who can resist it when the butter melts on contact? Not me.

Enjoy!

c.