Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Banana Bread!

Sorry, but the banana phone was out of service!

Everyone knows that the trick to really awesome banana bread is to use those bananas which are all spotty and really just past the point where you want to peel and eat them. It’s hard to time your banana bread craving to the availability of The Perfect Bananas.   Either they’re all yellow and perfect for slicing into your cereal bowl, or they’re perfect for cooking and you have No Time. So…..here’s a little trick.

Toss the bananas into the freezer overnight. (Also great for keeping bananas in that banana-bread-perfect state, once they’re all spotty, toss them in the freezer. They’ll turn black and look unappetizing, but trust me, they’ll work perfectly!)

Sooooooo, that’s your tip, don’t spend it all in one place.

You will need:

¼ pound (yes, pound) of butter (yes, butter) @room temp
½ cup raw sugar (it has more flavor, dagnabbit)
1 ¼ cup self-rising (unbleached) flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
3 or 4 bananas
¾ cup of sour cream (oh yeah…)
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
3 shakes of ground ginger
1 shake of nutmeg

Start with the butter and sugar. If you’ve got the butter to about room temperature, it will cream with the sugar more easily. If it isn’t quite as soft as you want, DON’T MELT IT!

Just cut it into thin slices, and you’ll be able to blend it with the sugar to a creamy, slightly chunky mixture.

Once you’ve got that all creamed, add allllllll the other ingredients and fold them all together. If you’ve used formerly frozen bananas, you won’t need to mash them first.

If you haven’t (you naughty cook, you), then you probably want to mash them a bit before mixing them in. 

Butter and flour a loaf pan and pour all the gooey, banana-y goodness in.

Now if you’re like me and forgot to preheat the oven, this is a perfect time to turn your oven to 350 degrees(f) and wash out the mixing bowls and implements of cooking. Because hardened banana bread batter is a %#@% to get out!

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes to an hour- I set the timer for 45 minutes and do the toothpick test. This is a pretty dense bread, so I actually let it cook for about 8 minutes after it passed the toothpick test.

This banana bread is great on its own, or slathered with butter, with a dab of whipped cream, or if you are so inclined, a serving of French vanilla bean icecream.