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Update- 8:54am, March 21.
Location:  Esther’s cube.

Esther just demolished nearly 2/3 of the loaf in… 10 minutes.

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It’s that time of year again- oranges. Massive and massive amounts of orange. There were some 60 oranges sitting in my garage at one point. We’ve manage to dwindle that number down to 40. Still, that’s a formidable number. I’m not sure how many more oranges I can physically eat.

So I was thinking. Orange chicken? Orange sorbet? Orange marmalade? Orange…?

Then I came across a recipe for orange cranberry bread. It used real oranges and real cranberries. I didn’t have cranberries, but I had… craisins!

In the interest of cutting down sugar, I completely modified this bread. I halved the amount of butter and replaced margarine with canola oil. The result is a dense and somewhat dry bread. However, it makes for some good dunking. Think of it as a cross between a biscotti and bread.

You can taste a trace of the sugar, but the craisins provide a full burst of sweetness. I kept the walnuts whole because I like the way they take up huge chunks within the loaf. Really, this is one of those recipes where you can toss just about any extra dried fruit or nut that you have in your pantry.

The batter came out lumpy and dense. It wasn’t what I was used to at all with bread. Typically, the breads that I make are more runny, almost like muffin batter. Those batters make for an airier and lighter bread. I wasn’t sure how the loaf would come out. It was so difficult to smooth it out. At the end, I had to settle with massive chunks of craisins on the bottom of the loaf as I was too impatient to figure out a way to get them more evenly spread out.

Awhile back, I invested in one of those $5 mini loaf pans. As someone who doesn’t like firing up an inefficient gas oven, I like baking in my toaster oven. Now, it’s not the best apparatus for baking, but for things that need time to bake, it provides for a good alternative. So I watched the loaf rise immediately within the first five minutes, forming uneven lumps and peaks. And the smell. It just smelled great.

After about 20 minutes it was done. For a regular sized loaf, this will take much longer- up to nearly an hour. But it’s totally worth it. I didn’t eat much of it until this morning, when I dunked it into coffee. If I had some strawberry preserves, I would have totally spread some. I could also imagine it tasting good with nutella. Maybe ketchup? (Okay, I’m kidding. Even I think that’s disgusting)

This bread isn’t at all hard to make. It takes literally 10 minutes and you can do it completely by hand. If you’re looking for a moist, light bread, this is most definitely NOT the recipe you’re looking for. The texture reminds me a bit like soda bread. Sometimes, you just have a craving for breads like this. However, I think that replacing the canola oil with something like margarine may improve the moistness, which was what the original recipe had called for.

Orange Cranberry Walnut Bread
Inspired by Allrecipes

Yields one 9 x 5 loaf

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1 1/2 cups craisins
• 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup orange juice

Recipes:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. This is a bread that takes a bit to bake so technically, you could put it into two loaf pans, although it clearly won’t rise as much. However, they’d bake quicker!

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in orange zest, craisins, and walnuts . Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the canola oil, sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in orange juice. Beat in flour mixture until just moistened. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the bread springs back when lightly touched. Let stand 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

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!)

Dear Parentals,

Thank you for buying 15 overly ripe bananas in an attempt to save money, but then deciding that they were too fragile for your three and a half hour carride back to the middle of no where. This is one of those moments where I’m glad I’m an only child because as such, I get to inherit all 15 of them in their blackened glory.

Your daughter,

Jessie

Just kidding. I was actually really excited. Most times, I don’t get a chance to make banana bread because I never have enough bananas that overripe. Bananas are just so versatile in general. Sometimes, I’ll throw them into the blender for a smoothie for the commute. Other times, I’ll bring them to work and drizzle them in honey and almond butter. It’s become a rare occasion where I’ll have at least three left at the end of the week to make bread, let alone 15!! Okay, they were small, so technically it was like 7 bananas. But still!

So I took this opportune moment to do what I’ve always wanted to do. Experiment! Now that I can afford all the butter, eggs, and sugar I desire (courtesy of my paycheck), I’m hoping I can do more of these.

There are so many banana bread recipes out there, most of them producing equally delicious results. But “delicious” is very subjective and two things can be delicious in different ways, can’t they?

I wanted to see the effect of melting/creaming butter as well as using yogurt/omitting yogurt. Hence, I took a recipe from Baking Illustrated, which is a compilation of dozens upon dozens of tested recipes. In other words, the book is based on scientific proof and various rounds of experimenting. The other recipe was from Allrecipe.com that was favorite-d over 99,000 times! It was a competition between the tastebuds of the mass public and science.

The following recipes each make one standard 9 x 5 loaf.

Left: Baking Illustrated Banana Bread / Right: Allrecipe Banana Banana Bread

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Baking Illustrated Banana Bread:

This bread makes use of yogurt and less butter. But even more surprising is how the butter is incorporated. Here are some quick conclusions the authors came up when they were formulating the “perfect” banana bread recipe.

• Condition of bananas: The more overripe the banana, the more sweet and moist it is. Hence, less butter (2 tablespoons worth). Most recipes call for 1/2 cup of butter or 1 stick, which is exactly what was used in the other recipe.
• Mash or puree the bananas?: Mash by hand for sure. You may get chunks, but pureeing the banana makes them too watery for the bread to rise. Use a fork to mash the bananas so that the big chunks are gone. It should be a thick, smooth consistency.
• What type of dairy to use? Milk? Sour Cream? Buttermilk? Yogurt?: Use yogurt. Milk creates a slick crust. Sour cream adds a richness but makes the texture heavy. The loaves also tend to be a bit more unattractive because they come out pebbly. Buttermilk adds a nice tang but yogurt does the job better.
• Mixing method of butter: Creaming the butter creates a soft texture with good volume but the color of the bread comes out lighter and less appealing. Instead, melt the butter, which will produce a delicate texture. The loaf overall will rise more.

Another worthy tip is the amount of time dedicated to mixing the dry ingredients with the wet. Flour contains protein and and when protein mixes with moisture, it’ll make gluten. That’s why if you over-mix, the loaves will not only turn out smaller, but they’ll also be tough. Gluten is great for doughs that you don’t want to change shape, but it also means the bread won’t rise as well. So mix with a spatula until the flour is just incorporated.

Banana Bread
Baking Illustrated

Ingredients:

• 2 cups  all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups walnuts, chopped coarse (optional)
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (~3 bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (3/4 stick)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease the bottom/sides of a 9 by 5 loaf pan. If your walnuts aren’t toasted, spread them on a baking sheet and toast them until fragrant for 5-10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl. Set aside

Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined. The batter should look thick and chunky. Scrape into the loaf pan.

Bake for just under 60 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes then eat! You can keep this bread for up to 3 days if properly wrapped in plastic wrap.

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Banana Banana Bread taken from Allrecipes

With 99,458 favorites, clearly you can’t go wrong with a recipe like this. Many people commented that though very dense and banana-y, it’s a winner with the crowds. Instead of using regular granulated sugar, this recipe uses brown sugar. It also calls for creaming the sugar into the butter. The recipe did not use milk, sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt.

Some people felt that the 2 1/3 cups of mash banana made for too dense a bread. I was afraid of the bread not rising properly, so I used 2 cups, which is just half a cup more than the other recipe. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Banana Banana Bread
Adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups mashed overripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 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.

Slice from Baking Illustrated’s Banana Bread

The conclusion? Despite the backing of the popular mass, I thought the Banana Bread from Baking Illustrated (BI) won by a landslide.

• Texture: The BI bread was lighter and the bread rose beautifully with that desired crack on the middle of the loaf. It was fluffy and airy. It was as if that 2 tablespoons of butter really made a difference. The Allrecipes bread was dense and although moist, it didn’t have the same delicateness as the BI bread.
• Greasiness: The Allrecipes bread seemed as if it was leaking butter. You could tell as you were cutting the bread on the board. Grease from the butter just saturated the parchment paper. The BI bread? Not so much. This leads me to believe that the melting and cooling of the better really does create a better result. I mean how much of a difference could two extra tablespoons make?!
• Taste: This is tougher because both were equally delicious. Of course, the Allrecipe bread was a bit more banana-y, but not by much despite having half a cup more. You could definitely taste more butter in the Allrecipe bread. You could taste a bit of the tang from the yogurt in the BI bread, which I really liked.

Science prevails!

And then, I was left with all this banana bread. Don’t worry, I only had HALF A SLICE of each and I’m giving them ALL away tomorrow! Looks like I’m going to defeat the purpose of beach volleyball tomorrow night!

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!)

Home-made turkey burger. Healthy turned unhealthy with use of cheddar cheese(s)

Now, now let’s not get too ahead of ourselves there. The turkey burger came after the hike during dinner, which made it possible to come back home fatter than pre-hike.

View from Mt. Tammany of the Delaware River

Mount Tammany: 1,526 ft.
Location: Northern New Jersey, southernmost peak of Kittatinny Mountains
View/Waterfalls: Ridiculously awesome.

A few weeks back, Neha emailed me about the possibility of hiking around Lake George. I was super excited only to find that it’d be a 5 hour drive, which is pretty much out of the question for a day trip. Then, another friend suggested Mohonk, but that’s a bit over a 2 hour drive (not to mention, it’s like $15/person to get in). Finally, I found the Delaware Water Gap, which is roughly a 1 hour 40 minute drive. So, kids, if you’re feeling in touch with nature and want to escape from your busy civilization-seeking lives AND you live in central Jersey but don’t want a long drive, this is your place to go.

For someone who’s really REALLY bad at directions, this was such an easy drive (Angela was a great navigator too, beating out my gps). All you have to do is drive until the end of I-80 and the trail begins. So here are some basics about hiking Mt. Tammany:

• There are two trails to hike Tammany- Red and Blue. The red is not a “la-di-da” stroll. It’s labeled as strenuous on many hiking sites and I’d have to agree. But for a group of 20-22 girls, it was definitely do-able. Sure, there are steep passages that got our heart racing, but as long as you have a strong foothold, you should be able to make it to the top. The blue trail is fairly easier. Actually, alot easier because there are no steep climbs. The trade off? The red trail is 1.5 miles and the blue is 2.5 miles. So take the red trail up and the blue train down. And contrary to what a passerby hiker thought, yes, they both take you back to the same parking lot.
• To get to the red trail, there’s a sign that has the red dot. It’s located on the far right end, where the mouth of the parking lot is. It’s a bit obscure but you can see steps. Many people enter into the wide opening (with no sign) thinking that they’re hiking the red. If you see a bridge within a couple of minutes, you’re on the wrong trail. If you’re not climbing a steep slope, you’re going the wrong way. If you see white dots instead of red, then you’ll eventually hit the blue trail. We made that mistake but turned back within minutes.
• The blue trail has some awesome water-fall/stream action, so I’d suggest saving that for after the summit.
• This is a carry-in, carry-out area. So whatever you carry in, make sure you carry out because you’re stuck with it. There are no trash bins (who the heck would want to climb up on a bi-weekly basis to empty out trash?!).

We were really nervous about the weather since it was forecast to rain for the whole day, but when we woke up yesterday, it said it’d be cloudy/partly sunny for the duration of our trip. Score! But when we got up to the summit, we actually saw a chunk of rain in the near distance. Even though there were all these dark, looming clouds over us, there was this one patch that was distinctly hazy and we could actually see the rain. At first we laughed, but then we realized- “Oh shi-, that’s moving toward us, really fast.” It caught up to us within half an hour (and then drizzled).

Before I go any further, I’d like to introduce you to Neha and her music blog, Neon Notes. It’s a super-cool blog with coverage (though not limited to) of up and coming artists in the NYC area. She goes to concerts, takes tons of cool pictures, and links their music. If you’re into indie, hip-hop, or just some chaotic but awesome ear-candy, check out her blog. It’s a great escape from the top-40 that most are only exposed to.

The “thing” from the Adams family + Angela’s shades. That stump had the best 2 minutes of its life there, said Gurpreet.

Back to the hike. We started a bit before 10am and reached the summit around noon. Two hours seems like alot, given that it’s only 1.5 miles, but we took lots of pictures along the way (as the path winds, there are several great views of the Delaware Water Gap). And seeing as how a guy who was training to climb Mt. Hood in Oregon told us that we were going at a decently fast speed, I’d say that we didn’t do too bad!

Stopping for a breather and some good pictures. It’s not everyday that the number people with DSLR’s outnumber those with point-and-shoots in a group. So we took full advantage of the views.

When you get up to the summit, you see this jagged edge that gives a spectacular glimpse of the view below.  If you miss that (which you’d honestly have to be blind to do so), you’ll start seeing blue dots on the trails, indicating that you’re at the top. Anyway, don’t be shy about venturing out to the edge of the rocks, because it really is a spectacular view. Besides, if you’re going to climb all that, you might as well. Looking back, having an overcast sky was great because it made the photos come out alot better than the bright sun would have.

Over the river and through the rocks…

This is the beginning of the blue trail, climbing down. Other than these rocks that essentially formed a flat plane, you don’t really climb over any other rocks. At this point, we were trying to beat that ominous rain cloud, but then suddenly, the sun came out and so, we figured it’d be a good time for lunch.

Wawa wraps, all under $3!

Of course, no road trip and hike is complete without grub from Wawa. For anyone who doesn’t live in the burbs on the East Coast, Wawa is possibly the best grub you’ll get from a gas station/convenience store. Their wraps are made fresh each morning, their breakfast foods are a greasy but more gourmet take on McDonalds (not really, but it tastes and looks better), and they have these giant sausages/hot dogs that come off the grill like at a baseball park. I  L O V E  Wawa. Plus, they also have cheap gas!

JLee’s Banana-brownie bread

Anddd… no hike is complete without some sweet grub that’ll guarantee to melt away any remaining hunger. A few weeks back, I blogged about Nigella’s Banana Bread. There are few recipes that I’ll use more than once (I like to experiment around) but this was seriously such a winner that I wanted to make a full loaf for the trip. Of course, just as I finished making the batter, I realized that the bread pan was being used to house that Strawberry Ice Cream I made last weekend. Then, I remembered Jerry telling me how I just had to mix banana bread and brownie mix, so why not. I’ll name it after you too, Jerry!

I took out a square pan, filled it up with the banana bread batter, and got out some of that Kodiak Cake Brownie Mix I got in the mail. It’s this really wholesome chocolaty mix with chocolate chips. I followed the directions (added butter, egg, and oil), and layered the brownie batter on top of the banana bread batter. Then, I took a toothpick and swirled it around to make that marble effect. Looking back, I would have reversed the order of the batter so that there’d be more yellow peeking from the brown. Any brownie cake mix would suffice, but for anyone out there who can get access to Kodiak Cake products at their local store, I’d highly recommend trying some (you can also order online, but I heard it’s a bit expensive).

All of my friends agreed that the Southern Comfort in the dried apricots made the cake a winner. It’s super-filling and so satisfying. I wouldn’t recommend making it on a normal day because a stick and a half of butter did go into that…

Top- Successful attempt at a long exposure, taken with my beloved 100mm; Bottom- Neha’s on the edge one of the smaller falls, taken with my new 50mm (which came just in time for this trip!)

After lunch, we continued on the trail. Twenty minutes in, we heard running water and then came across this gorgeous waterfall with little waterfalls surrounding it. You could hear the rush of the water and the splat splat that all the water made. We spent at least half an hour taking photos.

The top of the fall IS accessible, but of course, both my feet fell into the water as I was trying to navigate across the mossy rocks. Lesson? Avoid moss on rocks if you want to stay dry.

The view from the other side of the waterfall.

Photo by Angela Zou

That’s me, before I got wet. This was a whimpy jump, but Angela can make any jump look good. I look super-excited though.

Nearing the end of our hike, we found a fallen tree that made for a great bench. It was another 5-10 minutes before we reached the parking lot. The blue trail look two and a half hours, but only because we stopped to take so many pictures. It’s a breeze to walk down though.

We got back home around 4pm and I started on dinner. I made some guacamole and chips for them to nibble on as dinner took two hours. Neha came into the kitchen at one point and said, “Oh, you’re actually making the burgers? I thought you bought frozen patties and were going to deep fry them.”

Neha, I would never do that to anyone- subject them to frozen food. YUCK.! (Just kidding, I eat frozen foods too- when I’m desperate)

This was my first attempt at making any burger, much less turkey burgers, but I was really happy with they way they turned out. I realized that it’s difficult to overcook a turkey burger, but maybe that’s because of all the stuff I put into the patty that made it so juicy. Embarrassingly, I expected to them to turn dark brown like the way beef burgers do and almost shot myself in the head when I realized that, “Duh, turkey meat is white!”

So Yuengling went REALLY well with these. I’m convinced it made the meal 10x better.

Jessie’s Turkey Burgers

The following recipe makes around 10 burgers, depending on how thick you make them. I got my inspiration from here. I even made this red pepper mayo, which though a bit runnier than regular mayo, turned out quite well! All I did was mix a slice of red pepper (I’d use roasted next time), salt, chili powder, and mayo in a food processor.

Ingredients:

1.5 lb lean turkey meat
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium sized onion
1 egg
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Slices of cheddar cheese for topping (optional, but recommended!)

Recipe:
In a food processor, pulse the onion and garlic until it becomes very fine (you don’t want chunks of onion and garlic in your burger). Incorporate that into the ground turkey. Add the egg, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Mix until everything is finely incorporated. Form the meat into inch thick patties and set aside.

On a grill or pan set to medium heat, lightly spray it with PAM (although you can honestly get away with not spraying it). Place your patties, making sure they don’t touch each other, onto the surface and cook for 3-5 minutes before flipping over. Once flipped over, lay a slice of cheese, and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes.

Toast your buns, slather on some mayo, mustard, whatever you want, more cheese, and lettuce. DONE! Serve with beer.

Note- The original recipe did not call for an egg, but I like the way the egg holds everything together. The resulting meat mixture was a bit more “wet” but it still cooked fine.

Later, we had that strawberry ice cream. Jenny asked me how I made it.

“So, did you melt ice cream and then add in the sliced strawberries and then refreeze it?”

Ohhh, Jenny! HAHA!

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Photo du jour: I’ve been told this almost looks like a painting?

You should also check out:

• Superbowl wing recipes (from a Top Chef!)
• Five minute salty & nutty dark chocolate bark
• Day 4 in Switzerland | Montreux, Confiserie Zurcher
• Day 3 in Switzerland | Davos, Sheraton Davos Hotel Walduus
• Day 2 in Switzerland | Zurich, Café Weggen & Henrici Coffee

The best things come unexpectedly. Like…

Holding a long awaited package in the palms of my hand, days before it’s expected to arrive.

Breathing deeply and not having to sneeze/tear around blossoming trees.

Finding that lost $5 bill in your pocket that you didn’t realize you lost.

Coming home to a text message that says, “Sister [Clare], that banana bread thing you made was so good!” when it wasn’t the sister who baked it.

While I was shopping for milk, I came across this tiny bread pan, about a third of the size of a regular bread pan. It’s the perfect size since I live alone and can’t nearly eat as much as most recipes call for. It even fits into a toaster oven, so I can avoid firing up the gas oven! Anddd, it’s less waiting time. Bread usually takes 40-60 minutes to bake. A mini version takes half the time!

My favorite chef in the whole world is Nigella Lawson. There’s something about her that just makes her super lovable. I think it’s her way with words and her soothing voice. If you haven’t seen or heard of Nigella yet, I suggest you youtube her. She’s also quite gorgeous.

Nigella’s one of those “let’s be serious- we’re baking, not trying to lose weight” sort of person so I use her recipes only when I feel like I can splurge on those calories. But this recipe was surprisingly healthy, despite the stick of butter that it calls for. It’s totally worth it. I’d gladly run 6 miles to burn off a couple of slices.

What makes this banana bread recipe stand out from the rest is the use of rum. The original recipe calls for raisins and rums so that each bite of raisin gives a burst of that sweet, mildly alcohol-ly goodness. Since we have every imaginable liquor at home except for rum, I used Southern Comfort… and apricots. It was so good, I’m hoping to make this again tomorrow. The recipe below makes a whole loaf (not the mini one shown above)

Nigella Lawson’s Banana Bread

Ingredients:

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Photo du jour: “Paint me a vision of something beautiful”

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!)

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!)