Baking Adventures: Trisha Yearwood's Banana Bread

It appears that my family is always well stocked on bananas. It works out well that two of us like bananas, what we like to call 'fresh from the monkey'...just perfectly yellow without any blemishes, and the other three like them slightly past ripe, with lots of spots. However, it's inevitable that some of the bananas don't get plucked in time, so we somehow end up with a surplus of over-riped bananas in the freezer. We have a bunch of family coming into town  in a week, so I wanted to go ahead and bake some easy breakfast items that can be tucked away in the freezer and popped out when they arrive! 

Family coming into town + a half dozen bananas in the freezer = banana bread!

From Trisha Yearwood's

Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen 

3/4 c. unsalted butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 large eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 t. vanilla

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 c. chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.

With an electric mixer or stand alone mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

 Add eggs one at a time. Beat in the bananas and vanilla. 

Sift flour together with baking soda and salt and add to the mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Fold in nuts if desired.

Pour the batter into the loaf pans and bake for 50 minutes. Cool slightly in the pan before turning the loaves out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

***I added 1/2 t. of banana flavoring to the mixture, about 1 tsp of cinnamon and divided them into 4-mini loaf pans and 1-regular loaf pans, and baked for about 42 minutes until lightly golden brown

Bon Appetite !