Mouthwatering Banana Bread or Muffins

I haven’t posted a recipe for awhile and this is a family favorite.  It came from my mom’s ward cookbook many years ago now and I have used it countless times.  It’s so yummy!  It’s one of Grandpa D’s favorite.  He told me before that it was the best banana bread he has had, and I don’t think he was just saying it to be nice.  I meant to make it for him while he was here, but didn’t get to it unfortunately.  What?  I haven’t written about Grandpa’s visit here?  Well, I’m waiting for him to send me the great pictures he took to include in that post, but if he doesn’t get around to that soon I’ll write about it anyway.  It was a very special and fun visit.  In fact I haven’t written about much lately.  I guess that’s one of the casualties of being a single mom for awhile.  So without further ado, here is my favorite banana bread  (or muffins!) recipe:

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups bananas, very ripe (I usually just put in 3-4 bananas without measuring them, probably 3 if they were bigger or 4 if they were smaller)

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 tsp vinegar)

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Mix the milk and vinegar together in a measuring cup so they can do their thing while I’m doing the rest of the recipe.  I never seem to have buttermilk so I always do the milk and vinegar.  I suspect this ingredient may be part of what makes this recipe special.

3.  Cream together butter and sugar.

4.  Blend in eggs, vanilla, and bananas.  Mix well.

5.  Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together and add to mixture.  (Okay, I cheat on this one.  I just put the baking soda and salt in the batter first, mix them well into the batter so I’m sure they’re evenly spread, then add the flour.  I’m not big on using extra bowls.)

6.  Add buttermilk (or milk/vinegar combo) and mix well.

7.  I actually never add nuts for some reason, but I’m sure they would be really good!  Feel free to throw in 1/2 cup of your favorite chopped nuts.

8.  Pour batter into greased and floured bread pans or muffin tins.  (I generally do one muffin tin and one loaf of bread.)

9.  Bake in preheated oven at 325 for 50 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes for bread and about 20-25 minutes for muffins.  That’s a big variation, but you just have to watch them, look for them to look finished and put in a toothpick or fork (if you don’t mind the fork mark) to see if it comes out dry.  My last loaf finished before the 50 minute mark because I think it was a little smaller than usual.  When you start really smelling that delicious smell, that’s a good time to start checking on it.

10.  Let it cool a little bit.  If you’ve greased and floured well, they should pop right out of the bread pan or muffin tin after just sliding a knife around the edge.  Somehow they are just perfect warm with a glass of milk.  Scott likes to slather butter on his, but it’s perfectly yummy as is, too.  This is gone in a flash in our house.  If you have extra, though, they would freeze really well.  Enjoy!

~ by Kathy on October 18, 2009.