Banana Bread

My mom has been making banana bread (actually, it’s usually banana bread muffins) since before I can remember. Her recipe is adapted from an old cookbook of hers, and when I had some extra time on my hands– along with some over-ripe bananas– during a long weekend out of town, I decided to scour the internet for a similar recipe. It had to use sour cream, and of course mashed bananas, and it was under those parameters that I found this recipe from Food.com. Despite my being even more spaced out than usual while making this, I found the taste and texture of the finished product to be very close to my original, although I am curious how the two would compare. Maybe this calls for a banana bread bake-off…

But I can’t even begin to think about that until my kitchen has: A) a sink, and B) counters. But guess what? The countertops which were supposed to come last week will hopefully come this week!

That sounded much more optimistic in my head.

Why don’t we just get this recipe started before I bore you to death?

The ingredients for today: Butter, flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, sour cream, vanilla, bananas, and the optional nuts, which I really recommend you use (unless you have a nut allergy, of course), as they add a nice crunch while you munch. Heh. I love rhymes.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

First thing’s first: cream your butter…

…the sugar…

And the vanilla.

Oh, and then the eggs. I almost forgot.

Ta-da!

Add in the dry ingredients: the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Now, according to the original recipe, you would add the mashed banana and the sour cream in with the rest of the batter before mixing.

But judging from this picture I found, I’m pretty sure I mixed up the other ingredients first.

Hey, I told you I was a little loopy while making this. I honestly have no idea why. Lack of sleep? Was it something I ate? The world may never know.

Anyway, you can either be a normal human being and mix all the ingredients at once, sour cream, bananas and all, or you can be like me and stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones…

…And then mash up those bananas. You’ll need about a cup.

Mix this, along with the sour cream (which I for some reason do not have a photo of) right into the batter.

On second thought, maybe I did do this right. Well, it turned out yummy anyway.

Now just chop up some nuts (only if you’re using them, of course. I used pecans), and stir them in.

Grease a loaf pan, pour in the batter, and bake for an hour. A toothpick should come out pretty clean, and the top should be golden brown and delicious looking.

Like that!

All that’s left to do is slice and eat! I packaged some up and brought it to my ever-hungry friends the next day, and stored leftovers in a plastic tupperware container.

Here’s a smaller version of the recipe for you copy-and-pasters:

Banana Bread

From crumbsandnibbles.com, originally from food.com

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed banana

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan.

2. Cream the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

3. Add flour, baking soda, and salt.

4. Add mashed banana, sour cream, and nuts (if using) and mix until well combined.

5. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

Pretty simple, huh? This stuff really is so good. It’s perfect for breakfast, a snack, or dessert. Happy nibbling!