Banana Bread

I’ve made numerous attempts at banana bread. They’ve never come out successfully simply because, well, I’m not a fan of following directions. I hadn’t planned on baking until at least after next week (when I can finally take a breather from this vicious recruiting cycle) but as I got back from the gym and reached up on the fridge for my banana, it was all soft and black! So in that instant, I decided that I’d bake banana bread and take half of it with me to Philly tomorrow.

There are so many recipes for banana bread. I decided to adapt this one (it’s a bit healthier!) and added a bit of cocoa powder. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the bread except next time I’ll use at least 4 bananas instead of 2. But even at that, the banana bread came out quite moist and flavorful although you could definitely smell the butter. And, I had some leftover crumble topping from that time when I made blueberry muffins, so I thought why not!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups mashed overripe bananas (that’s about 5 bananas!)

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cocoa powder and salt.
   
3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and  sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
   
4. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture, but do not overmix! Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Side Notes:

• I have neither an electric mixer  nor time for the luxury of working out my arm muscles. Hence, I melted the butter until it was soft enough, but not completely melted.
• I didn’t have brown sugar as the recipe had initially called, so I used white sugar
• If you want to put crumble topping, here is the recipe. This is obviously completely optional!
• Bread will really brown up on the outside, but the inside should still be moist. The original recipe called for a baking time of 60 minutes. Mine was definitely done by 50 minutes. So you’ll have to gauge yourself.
• Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

You should also check out:

• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• O clementine olive oil ice cream
• Chocolate coffee & pumpkin spice cupcakes
• Blueberry + strawberry muffins (with crumble topping!)
• ICE CREAM!!! (and cupcakes!)