Banana Bread

In my humble opinion, banana bread is really underappreciated.

How many dishes do we make that require an ingredient that is past its prime?

Banana bread is one of the few recipes I know that say, “No! Don’t throw out that ingredient! It may be ‘bad’ in everyone else’s eyes, but to me, it is perfect” <3

Like if you use good bananas (a.k.a. a tiny bit of green, perfectly yellow with no blemishes), the banana bread isn’t as good! The bananas don’t mash well and then you’ve got weirdly chunky, non-fluffy banana bread.

When I started my first blog, this banana bread was the first recipe I posted.

It seems fitting that it is the first post on this blog as well!

Tbh with you, I got this recipe from a Blue’s Clues Book when I was like 7. Not kidding.

My younger brother loved Blue’s Clues and we had this one book that had a “Banana Cake” recipe in it. My brother wanted to try it, and it ended up being a solid basic recipe! Since then, I’ve made a few alterations like adding a touch of cinnamon, tossing in dark chocolate chunks, and swapping sour cream for Greek yogurt.

I didn’t add chocolate chunks for this batch, but if you do, be sure to toss them in a bit of flour and then carefully fold them in to your batter. This helps to keep the chunks from sinking.

Also, I made this all in my beloved stand mixer, using it to mash the bananas first, and then to thoroughly mix the batter.

By the way, if you think the picture makes the bread look super soft in the middle, you are not incorrect. I say to bake it between 45-55 minutes, and I cook mine on the lower end of that spectrum because G likes super soft banana bread that is a little under-cooked. But at 45 minutes, the ends are still well cooked. Important because the ends are my favorite part and I like my banana bread fully cooked 🙂 (also, you guessed it, I am a fan of the corner piece of brownies).

If you cook it all the way, it shouldn’t have a big dent on the top like mine either haha

Any other end piece fans out there? Do you like your banana bread thoroughly cooked or slightly under-done? That is the great debate of our home! 🙂