Banana Bread by Kate

My kitchen never seems to be lacking in incredibly ripe bananas. This is probably due to the fact that I buy and forget about them until it’s almost too late. In the past, I would save and freeze them for smoothies. These days, I don’t have a blender. Oh, the sadness! In order to cure my dilemma, I recently decided to take the bananas that were too far gone for eating and bake my own version of banana bread. Banana bread is my preferred of the quick breads because of its texture and ability to highlight the pure taste of the banana. Zucchini bread doesn’t seem to taste like zucchini at all, and so I don’t bother making it. Nutmegged pumpkin bread is the delicious runner up to banana. Mmm, I wonder how pumpkin banana bread would taste?

Banana Bread by Kate

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup of sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of flour
1 cup of oat bran
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup of buttermilk or yogurt
(1 cup of nuts)

When I was reading over some banana bread recipes, I noticed the incredible amount of sugar in the ingredients list: sometimes 1.5 to 2 cups of sugar! Although I have a sweet tooth, this is an excessive amount of sweetener. Ripe bananas have plenty of natural sugars that help enrich the bread with sweetness. I enjoy banana bread for breakfast in the morning and it just seems wrong to create a bread that would be ridiculously sweet. Therefore, I added only .5 cup of sugar in my recipe. I will not add an artificial sweetener in any of my recipes, unless I’m baking for a severe diabetic. Using synthesized chemicals, that have not undergone extensive long-term testing, just isn’t my thing. Nope, not even Splenda!

To begin, preheat the oven for 350 degrees. After setting the oven, line a large loaf pan with parchment paper. Parchment paper is my favorite way to line quick bread pans; it makes for incredibly easy bread removal and no clean up is involved. In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugar until completely incorporated. Add the beaten eggs to the butter/sugar mixture one by one, followed by the vanilla, mashed bananas, and buttermilk. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix well. At this point nuts could be added to the mixture, although I usually don’t include them. Aside from hazelnuts and almonds, most nuts aren’t really my thing. Finally, take the beautiful bowl of banana bread batter and scrape it into the lined loaf pan. Bake for an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the center of the loaf.

There you have it: delicious, healthy, breakfast-worthy banana bread!

Katie Eckert