Is that a banana in your bread, or are you just happy to see me?

Bananas are perhaps one of my favorite fruits.  Whether they're in a whole wheat pancake for breakfast, an addition to a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, or the most important part of banana's foster (well, besides the rum... we all love rum more than bananas) for dessert, bananas can go with just about any meal of the day.  Sadly there comes a time in every banana's life - when it reaches that blackened almost rotten but oh so wonderfully pungent and squishy grossness - that it's good for one thing, and one thing only... Banana Bread!

C and I were on a smoothie-for-breakfast kick for a couple of weeks so we loaded up on both fresh and frozen fruits.  Unfortunately for the fruit, I get tired of having the same thing for breakfast day after day, so we were left with a couple bags of frozen fruit and a shit ton of fresh bananas (and for those of you who were wondering, a shit ton is slightly more than a crap ton and slightly less than a f-ton).  Anywho, C made a gallant effort to eat the bananas before they went bad.  I, on the other hand, was eyeballing them greedily, waiting for them to rot to perfection so that I could make them into a loaf of happiness (I mean really, who doesn't get warm fuzzies in their tummy at the sight of banana bread fresh from the oven). 

Tuesday rolls around and I had talked C out of eating enough of the over-ripe bananas that I had enough to make my bread.  Here's the recipe that I used: 

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (my stupid face forgot to take the butter out of the fridge - the microwave is my best friend)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas (this was about 6 bananas - hence the shit-ton)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan (I say screw lightly - go big or go home).
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. At this point in the recipe your significant other will ask what you're doing, to which you can reply "creaming"  Let the hilarity ensue. Once he's stopped laughing hysterically at you, Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean (or until the boy and both dogs are sitting in front of the oven drooling). Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely (and by cool completely I mean flop it onto the wire rack and burn yourself cutting into it because said boy is staring at it like it's the most beautiful thing since breasts and he can't possibly wait any longer).

 

  

The wait was totally worth it.  C's killed almost all of what I left at home and the boys at work double fisted it until the rest was gone.  So if you can, let your bananas age gracefully and you won't be sorry you did!