Easy Homemade Banana Bread

My kids LOVE bananas. They eat them pretty much everyday. It is nothing for the two of them to devour an entire bunch of bananas in a 24 hour time period. That being said, it is rare that our bananas get ripe enough for banana bread. I love banana bread. A few weeks ago my mom and I were talking with my uncle and he was saying how much he loved banana bread and what a great seller it was at the local bake sales. I hadn't had banana bread in awhile, and I knew I had some bananas waiting in the freezer. It was cold that weekend (60's in July, go figure) so I set out to use up those freezer bananas. I had a standard banana bread recipe I used, but that cookbook was still in our storage unit. I also had a recipe I found from Pinterest that used a box of yellow cake mix, egg, and bananas. Tasty, but I didn't have any boxed cake mixes in the cupboard. So I pulled out my mom's trusty old community cookbook and found the lone banana bread recipe in there. It was divine. I am pretty sure it is the best banana bread I have every tasted, let alone made. 

  

I love the simplicity of this recipe. No random ingredients you have to run to the store for. They are all standard pantry items.  My favorite part is that you just dump everything into the bowl, and mix. 

You don't have to mix wet ingredients separate from dry ingredients. No alternating layers of banana and dry ingredients. I think the secret to this recipe is the melted butter instead of oil. It gives it so much flavor and keeps it so moist. I am now obsessed with this banana bread and have made it 3 or 4 times in a 2 week time frame. Last weekend I made it for our Sunday breakfast and between the hubs, kids, and I we polished of an entire loaf for breakfast, oops! It has fruit in it so its good for you, right?! Once the batter is in the loaf pan, I like to top it with some white sanding sugar. It is like the big chunky sugar that the bakeries use on top of their muffins. It gives it such a wonderfully sweet and crunchy top. Here is a picture of the sugar I used. I was able to get it at Walmart by the sprinkles and such in the baking aisle. I have also used the Wilton brand sanding sugar from Walmart and that is in the crafts department by the caking baking supplies.

I usually can't wait, and dig right into it, fresh out of the oven. I think my kids love this bread, almost as much as they love bananas. Jackson likes to call it "the yummy banana bread." I am sure if I let them, they would each easily eat half the loaf in one sitting. I normally only allow them each 2 pieces, which I think is plenty. 

A beautiful golden color with specs of those delicious sugar crystals forming that wonderful crunchy crust. I couldn't wait and literally took this out of the oven, turned it out of the loaf pan, and sliced off a few pieces for myself to devour right away. Yummy. I hope you try this, and I am sure you will love it as much as we do. I am sure the kiddos will be so happy when they wake up from their nap and find some fresh banana bread to tear into. 

I didn't take any pictures of it this time, since I did it on Thursday, but I found the coolest tip on Pinterest on how to turn yellow bananas into banana bread bananas in a matter of minutes. You just bake your bananas in the oven (skins on) and they turn brown in about 10 minutes. There are a million different directions online - ranging from 200 degrees up to 350 degrees. If I remember right, I baked mine at around 300 for 10-12 minutes. Perfectly brown on the outside, and mushy and banana bread ready on  the inside. I love this trick because it means I can make this amazing banana bread whenever I want. I don't have to wait and hope that my kids don't eat all their bananas so I can make bread.

Easy Homemade Banana Bread

Printable Version 

3-4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 c. sugar

1 egg

1 ½ c. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

¼ c. melted butter

Mix all the ingredients together. Put in greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.