I finally jumped on the ‘Banana Bread Bandwagon’ today. We had a few overripe bananas laying around so I figured why not…seems like everyone else has made a loaf during this quarantine so I had to join in. This is a recipe that I originally found on Pinterest but tweaked just a little bit. I know everyone probably has a banana bread recipe that they love, but just in case you are looking for one, here is a recipe with minimal ingredients and just a few easy steps.

Ingredients:

2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of sea salt
3 large overripe bananas
1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter
3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of good vanilla (I use a Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste that is delicious)
Optional: 1/2 a bag of semisweet chocolate chips (I just dump…it’s probably around a cup)

*A great trick: toss your chocolate chips in a spoonful of flour before adding them to your mix so that they don’t sink to the bottom of your loaf or muffins.

Directions:

Just a note: I use my KitchenAid stand mixer, which has honestly saved my baking life.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a stand mixer combine the butter and brown sugar with the paddle attachment.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla right in and give it a mix until all combined.
4. Add in the bananas – I don’t even mash them up prior – I simply break them up in to chunks by hand before tossing them in. I then gradually increase my mixer speed until the mixture is all combined – should be a semi-smooth consistency (there may be a few small chunks, but not many). So easy – the mixer does all of the work for you!
5. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, then mix – normally recipes say to mix these three ingredients in a separate bowl first – I don’t. I dump it all in the mixing bowl and call it a day – one less bowl to clean.

By this point you should have a beautiful, light, and fluffy batter. The key is to not over mix – otherwise the batter becomes tough and nobody wants a punk banana bread. I mix my ingredients until they are just barely incorporated and then I stop.

Optional step: Add chocolate chips or nuts of your choice. I personally identify with semisweet so that’s what I use, but feel free to add dark or milk chocolate chips/chunks or even some walnuts. Yum!

6. Pour mixture into a greased or nonstick loaf pan or spoon it into a lined muffin tin.

7. Pour mixture into a greased or nonstick loaf pan or spoon it into a lined muffin tin.
If doing a loaf, bake for about an hour until it’s golden brown – I always poke it with a knife just to double check.

And that’s it – cut a slice – maybe top it with a little butter – eat it warm – delicious!

*Photos used are my own