When I was a kid my Dad used to sing this song: highly deadly black banana! I never knew its origin but it seemed to come out of his mouth every time our bananas began looking a little too brown. But nothing, not even rotten bananas, went to waste in our house. And though my Dad wasn't the primary baker, he had a bread that he loved to make, and that was banana bread. He passed this on to me and hopefully, my kids and my sibling's kids will pass it along to theirs as well.
I top mine with a streusel topping and it goes over very well! Its so moist of a banana bread that you might want to use a fork!
- 3-4 ripe (dark to almost completely black) bananas, smashed
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup melted, cooled butter
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- cinnamon and fresh nutmeg to taste
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped nuts- optional
- Cream the sugar, vanilla, butter, and egg together. You do not need to use a mixer- if you prefer do this by hand.
- Whisk together the baking soda, seasonings, salt, and flour.
- Add the nuts to the dry and toss (this helps keep the nuts from sinking!)
- Add the dry to the wet and stir by hand, making sure to fold from the bottom up but do not overmix!
- Add in the bananas last, folding until just blended in.
- Grease a loaf pan and bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes until done in the center (toothpick check).