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.
Collect the Ingredients
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 baking soda, salt, flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
Next put in your butter and mix all the ingredients together until this mixture looks like crumbs. The next step is to add two eggs. Mix this well and put in the pan you have prepared. Bake the bread at 350. This will take about 30 or 40 minutes to bake until it is done. Check the bread by pushing a toothpick into the center of the bread and when it comes out clean the bread is done.
A Few Last Tips
Use the proper size pan and it will make this process much simpler. A 4 x 8 inch deep pan is perfect. The oven should not be opened a lot since this will increase the amount of time the bread will have to bake. Every time you open the door, heat escapes and reduces the temperature in the oven.
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.
Making Chocolate Banana Bread
If chocolate banana bread is going to be made, you simply add a teaspoon of vanilla, a cup of chocolate chips (dark) and enough icing sugar to dust. This can be done when you are mixing the baking powder and flour together inside the bowl. Add the icing sugar then as well. The chocolate chips and butter can be melted by using a double boiler. This variety will take about an hour to bake and the loaf can be dusted with the icing sugar when it is done. Allow cooling for about 50 minutes before slicing.
