Banana Bread

Submitted by Kendall

Cream together:
2/3 cup Butter (soft, room temp)
1 cup Sugar

Combine in a separate bowl:
2 ½ cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. Salt

2 Eggs, beaten
1 1/3 cup Mashed RIPE Bananas (3-4) *see note below
½ cup Buttermilk or sour cream
(you can substitute buttermilk with regular milk and 2T white vinegar or I like to use a buttermilk powder - Cultered Buttermilk Blend - that I store in the fridge, you'll find it in the baking aisle at the store)

Cream butter & sugar, add 1 egg and 1 T. flour mixture; add 2nd egg and 1 T. flour mixture. Add bananas and beat well. Add milk and flour mixture alternately. Optional: chopped nuts or chocolate chips.

Grease the bottom of cake round or loaf pans. I have been baking with silicone and I love it! It's so easy to pop the bread out and clean up. I like the individual cupcake shapes - rounds, square, hearts and cake round/square. Bake 350° 30 – 40 minutes for round or loaf and 20 - 25 minutes for muffins...until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

RIPE BANANAS
We never eat all the bananas, doesn't matter how many I buy. When I notice the bananas beginning to turn, not black, but too ripe to eat, I throw them into the bottom of my freezer. For those of you who have seen the stash in my freezer, you might think I have a ripe banana hoarding problem. I easily have enough frozen ripe bananas to make 20 batches of bread! I feel the hoarding is genentic as I learned this behavior from my mother and my sister does it as well, although not to the same degree. When ready to use, set them out for a couple of hours until thawed. They will be super mushy and slimy and juicy...ALL GOOD!