Do you love bananas? I do. Eaten in a sandwich, served with a spoon of peanut butter, or especially, in a creamy pie; bananas are delicious.
I’ve loved banana bread since my childhood. It’s one of those things I remember everything about—the smell of it baking, my mom in the kitchen making it, the taste, the texture. It brings back a lot of warm memories for me.
Now, I enjoy making it for my own family. Here’s my recipe. It’s derived from many other recipes, which I tweaked and made my own. If you don’t have all the ingredients, see my tips listed below. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.
For this recipe you’ll need:
1 ½ Cups sugar
1 Cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3 large bananas
3 Cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 Cup buttermilk
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
To Make:
Add baking soda to buttermilk in a small bowl. Set aside
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add eggs, cut up bananas, and vanilla-mix with mixer until well combined.
In a separate medium-sized bowl, sift the flour and the salt together. Stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Add to the sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk-baking soda mixture (begin with the flour and end with the buttermilk).
Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Add batter and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour.
TIPS:
If you’d like, you may add 1 cup of nuts. Fold them in at the end just before pouring into baking dish.
This recipe makes even better muffins than bread! Prepare as directed above. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, until golden on top. The recipe will make 15 large muffins or about 45 mini muffins (great for the kids!). If you make mini muffins, reduce cooking time to approximately 15-20 minutes.
For muffins, you can sprinkle walnuts on top of each muffin before baking if you’d like.
Not crazy about nutmeg, cinnamon, or cloves? Go ahead, leave them out. It’ll still be delicious.
Don’t have buttermilk? No problem—simply add 1 TB white vinegar to a measuring cup, then fill the cup with milk to the 1 Cup measuring line. Let it sit 5 minutes before adding it to your recipe.
For a slightly different flavor, consider using half white sugar and half brown sugar.