plain ol' banana bread

How To Make plain ol' banana bread

• 1

  Preheat oven to 350F. Grease bottom of large loaf pan (9" x 5" x 4").
• 2

  Mix sugar & butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.
• 3

  Place flour into a separate bowl, then stir in baking soda and salt until well distributed. Next, stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just moistened. Fold in nuts.
• 4

  Pour batter into bottom-greased loaf pan, making sure batter reaches all corners evenly. Bake 1.25 hours (1 hour, 15 min) or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan.
• 5

  Remove loaf from pan carefully. Wrap in foil tightly and allow to finish cooling. Cool completely before slicing. (Yeah, right! Like that is ever going to happen!)
• 6

  NOTES ON FREEZING BANANAS: Left in their skins, bananas keep extraordinarily well in the freezer. No need to put them in plastic or anything else--just toss them in! They keep 6 months or so. If you're planning to keep them frozen longer than 6 months you should probably put them in an airtight plastic bag to protect against freezer burn. Of course, you'll want to remove them from the freezer a couple of hours before needing them in order to give them time to thaw. In a pinch, there's always the magical microwave defrost cycle, but I've never used it on bananas, so I don't know exactly how much time allow for defrosting. Just keep in mind it's always best to start small and add more time as needed. For 3 bananas I would probably start with one minute on defrost cycle* and go from there. Be sure to arrange the fruit in a circle around the center of the turntable, if you have one in your oven. Microwave ovens have hot spots, so you want all the bananas to rotate through those hot spots evenly. After the bananas have thawed, the skin integrity will be compromised, so you will want to use a sharp knife to make peeling less messy. The banana fruit, itself, may appear somewhat slimy (depending on how dark it was when it was frozen), but rest assured this is normal and will provide excellent flavor for your bread! *Be sure to check your microwave's defrost instructions. Some ovens may use 50% power for their defrost cycle while others may use a lower number (like my high 1100 watt machine which uses 20%). Also, higher wattage ovens may need less time to achieve the same result as a lower wattage oven, so you should base your choice of time on your knowledge of your machine!
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