Who doesn’t love a fresh baked loaf of banana bread? The soft interior, the crunchy exterior and that slightly sweet banana flavor makes for a delicious breakfast or quick snack any time of day. The smell of warm, fresh banana bread in the kitchen gives off a comforting feel. You can enjoy it plain or or add a variety of different things or toppings to give it that extra yum and make it your own.
Whelp.. now I want some, so let’s make some!
Banana Bread Recipe
Makes 1 loaf or 12 muffins
What You’ll Need:
Equipment:
A large mixing bowl
A loaf pan or muffin tin (12 count)
Mats:
1 ½ Cups flour
1 pinch salt
½ tsp baking soda
2-3 med. ripe bananas, smashed
⅓ cup melted butter
1 egg, beaten*
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup dried cranberries (optional)**
½ cup dark chocolate chips (optional)**
Whipped cream (optional)**
(Flour, salt and baking soda pre-sifted to fit all mats in photo.)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Sift flour, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl.
- Add bananas, butter, egg and vanilla to the bowl and mix until mostly smooth. (It may still have small lumps of banana, that’s okay. Those are little flavor pockets!)
- Add cranberries and chocolate chips and mix until well coated. (It’s perfectly normal for them to sink in the bowl.)
- Pour batter into a lightly greased or buttered loaf pan.
- Bake the loaf for 45 minutes or until done, check with a toothpick. (When inserted into the loaf, the toothpick should come out clean, no wet batter.)
- Let the loaf cool for 5-10 minutes.
- Cut into 8 slices.
- Plate two slices and top with whipped cream.
- Serve and enjoy.
*For egg allergies substitute 1 egg with 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce.
**Use any substitute or toppings you’d like, if you’re using fruit in the bread itself, I recommend using dried as wet fruit makes the bread soggy and unhappy. If you really want to use fresh fruit, cut it into small pieces, pat them dry with paper towel, and roll the fruit pieces in flour to help soak up some of the liquid before adding them to the batter.