The perfect Banana Bread recipe

and it's very easy. It took me a long time go fine-tune this.

Preheat oven to 350. Rub margarine or butter all over the inside of a Pyrex glass loaf dish.

1/2 cup softened butter, or good margarine like "Land 'o Lakes."
1 cup sugar, preferably "Baker's Sugar" (ultrafine) but regular sugar is OK
2 eggs
4 very ripe bananas, mashed (or 3 if they are large)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup miniature chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour, possibly an additional 1/4 cup if necessary

Mix butter or margarine with sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until smooth after each addition. Add vanilla and stir thoroughly. Mash bananas thoroughly until all large pieces are mashed. Quickly add to liquid mixture. Add mini chocoloate chips to that. If you do not have the mini ones, chop up regular chocoloate chips into pieces.

Combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and 2 cups flour thoroughly in a container. Put this on top of the liquid mixture, and carefully fold in the liquid to it, without stirring excessively. It should be just mixed enough to distribute the liquid. Any additional stirring will make the bread tougher. If the mixture is too runny, a small amount of flour can be added and folded in at the end, but no more than 1/4 cup additional. The exact amount of flour depends on how much liquid is contributed by the bananas. It is far better to have too little flour than too much.

The final mixture must be liquid enough that you can pour most of it into the baking pan, and only use a spoon to scrape the rest of it in. Pour into the greased baking pan. Start the baking at 350 for 30 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 300, and bake for 30 more minutes. At that point, test it by inserting a knife or long toothpick or stick. The knife or stick should come out clean, if so, take it out immediately.

If the knife does not come out clean, continue at 300 for 10 minutes and check again. Then keep checking every 5 minutes. As soon as the knife comes out clean, take it out immediately. Set it on a wire rack to cool. The top of the bread will be very soft at first, but it will get more firm as it cools. Allow it to cool for at least 45 minutes before attempting to slice it.

Bob Weaver

I have four bananas overripening on my counter right now. Tomorrow I'll make this!

He said they were too brown so he tosses them. :( I had to teach him about the proper banana for banana bread.

I'll try your recipe next time I have bananas. Instead, I had to make strawberry bread this evening.

:cry:

I'm printing out the recipe and will
try it very soon.

Thanks!

:9 :hi:

Wow! Thank You, this is a great recipe! I did everything you said except for the bakers sugar,couldn't find any but it turned out fantastic. I am going to look for the sugar to try next time. Thanks again:yourock: