Bananas…I can’t say a whole lot about them. They’re good when you’ve been exercising or have leg cramps. I’ll eat them when they are really yellow. No green. No black. And I’ll eat banana-flavored pudding. Hey, I’m from the South. It’s a staple. (I’ll share Southern Banana Pudding Recipe soon), but that is the extent of bananas for me, personally. However, I do live with some little monkeys that love all things banana. And since most people do, I think it’s great to have an absolutely delicious go-to quick bread recipe (Quick breads are bread loaf recipes that don’t have yeast. They are called quick because you don’t have to wait for the yeast to rise).
Since I had some bananas past their prime and a friend who brought me dinner when we were sick, I decided to make a loaf of banana bread to put in her container before I returned it to her. My southern manners won’t allow me to return empty dishes when they were brought to you with a meal. The banana bread turned out great, and before I could get it cooled, wrapped and delivered to my friend, someone, who will remain nameless, was standing over the stove hacking into the loaf, “to make sure it wasn’t poisonous.”
So, here it is a few days later as I’ve been patiently waiting on the bananas on the counter to turn brown/black so that I could make banana bread. The browner/blacker they are the better. If they aren’t moldy, they are good to go. They make the best bread. I’m also trying to waste less food, (http://www.savethefood.com), be creative with leftovers and not let the freezer become a black hole. It’s hard. I will not lie. No matter how well our week is planned out, things get crazy, no time to cook and the next thing I know that chicken has been thawed out too long and goes straight into the trash or compost bin.
So here’s my go-to, family-approved-best-ever banana bread recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as everyone in my household does! My recipe doesn’t have nuts. We already have plenty around here 😉
Ingredients :
1 Cup Granulated White Sugar
¼ Cup Brown Sugar
½ Cup Softened Kerrygold® butter
2 Large eggs
3 – 4 Large really brown/black bananas
Big Pinch of Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 TBSP Vanilla
1 ½ Cups of Bluebird flour
Heat oven to 350 degrees.Grease a bread pan or muffin tin with Kerrygold® butter or Pam Cooking Spray (or cupcake liners if you’re making muffins). With a stand mixer on medium speed, beat both white and brown sugars together with the softened butter. Reduce speed to low and add eggs one at a time until well blended. Toss in your bananas, pinch of salt, vanilla and baking soda. Using the “stir” setting on your mixer, reduce speed and add flour just until mixed.Scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl blending in any ingredients that are sitting on the bottom or sides of the bowl. Pour the mixture into the greased bread pan or muffin tin. Here at my house it takes 50 minutes to bake a loaf of bread. You can plan on the better part of an hour depending on where you live and your oven.
Her friends call her “Southern Belle.” But with three young children, she’s called “mom” more than anything these days. Debbie started Dede’s Cajun Cuisine in the fall of 2011 after catering a Southern lunch for a funeral at her church. She knew she wanted to share her love of cooking, southern heritage, and specifically, Southern food with her friends and family. The challenge became how to juggle all of that with her first priority of being a mom. Dinner time is always that crazy part of the day when everyone is hungry and tired. Between kid activities, never-ending laundry and the day-to-day grind of life, there isn’t enough time to prepare a meal from scratch.
