Earlier this week I opened the freezer to find almost twenty old bananas in there! Realizing I was soon going to lose all my freezer space to these fruits I decided a banana bread intervention was necessary. So finally yesterday I found the time to make three batches of bread: two loaves and one batch of muffins.
Now, everyone seems to have their own favorite recipe for banana bread. Some like it dense and damp. Others want it very fluffy. I like a bread that can withstand being put in a toaster without falling apart. I also like it sweet, but not sticky. After much testing over the years, I have found my favorite. It originally comes from the Neiman Marcus Pure & Simple cookbook. The primary reason I love it is because it uses up three bananas for each batch, while so many other recipes only require two. The recipe below has been slightly modified to my own taste.
First, lets talk about the bananas. My girls will only eat super fresh bananas, almost green. As soon as they begin to get too brown I toss them in the freezer. When it is time to make bread I pull out the number of bananas I need and place them into a bowl. They get microwaved for approximately two minutes. At this point they will still be fairly frozen with a few soft spots. If you peel them now the peel will come off without the banana being too mushy. Then they are ready to mash with a fork.
I like to add some spices to my bread to jazz it up a bit. You could add anything you want to this actually: chocolate chips like one of my loafs, orange zest, nuts...anything.
Ingredients
3 overripe bananas
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1 1/2c flour
1/4 c melted butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cardamom
Directions
Mash bananas in a large bowl. Add in remaining ingredients. Grease and flour loaf pan. Pour in batter and bake at 325°F for 50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes and turn onto rack.
Can also make approx. 12 muffins. Bake for 30 minutes
