I hope you had a great weekend! Over the weekend, I had the chance to do a bunch of cooking, baking and crafting!

One of the things we made was a banana bread loaf with some bananas that were overripe.  The banana bread turned out great, so I wanted to share the recipe we used.  I’m a novice baker so this was pretty fool proof!

Yum Yum Banana Bread!
Yum Yum Banana Bread!

This is adapted from a recipe I found on the Food Network.  Original recipe is here.

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon buttermilk
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with parchment paper and spray the ends with butter/cooking spray.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the buttermilk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears. Fold in chocolate chips, reserve a few for sprinkling on top.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.  The loaf should come out easily with the parchment paper.