Tasty, healthy and simple to make, banana bread is a hit with families, especially children. Banana bread can be served as a desert, a breakfast food or a great snack for sending with the children to school. Using bananas that are overripe is a great way to stretch your food dollars. Let’s make banana bread.
Get the Ingredients Together
When starting, pull out all the ingredients you will need. This will include:
- 2 bananas, mashed
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 3/4 cups of flour
- Extra flour and cooking spray for preparing the pan
Making the Bread
Turn the oven to 350 degrees and get your pan ready by spraying it with cooking spray and dusting it will flour. This allows the bread to be taken out of the pan with ease. Mix the mashed bananas with the salt, flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
Now put in the shortening or butter that is softened and mix this until it looks like crumbs. Add two eggs and mix some more. Put this mixture into the pan you have prepared. Bake this for about 30 or 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Check to see if it is done by inserting a toothpick into the middle of the pan and when it comes out with nothing on it, your banana bread is ready to come out of the oven.
A Few Last Tips
The best size pan for making the banana bread is 4 x 8 inches. This will make the process much easier. Do not open the oven a lot while baking the bread. This only causes the heat to come out and makes the bread have to bake longer to get done.
When choosing the bananas to use, the overripe banana will work much better. When the peel has many brown spots, the banana will be sweeter than regular ripe bananas. When your bread appears to be browning before the middle is done, you can use aluminum foil to cover it. This will allow the bread to get done without over-browning the top. If you have more bananas you need to use, make several loaves at the same time and freeze the extras to keep them fresh. Do not forget to use oven mitts when removing the bread from the oven or you will burn your hands.
Chocolate Banana Bread Instructions
If you want to make chocolate banana bread, this can be done by adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, icing sugar and a cup of dark chocolate chips. While you are mixing the flour and baking powder together, add your icing sugar. Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate chips as well as the butter. Use the icing sugar to dust over the loaf when it is done. Bake the bread for about an hour. Allow this to cool down for about 40 or 50 minutes.
Best Regards,
Ryan, the Bread Maker
