Turning Twenty®: Banana Bread Day

Today just feels like a Banana Bread day, and although I've got a few different recipes for this easy-to-make treat, here is one of my family favorites. I make two loaves at a time, you can cut the measurements in half if you'd rather make a single loaf.

Ingredients-

6 very ripe bananas

4 eggs

1 & 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 stick unsalted butter melted

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For outstanding banana bread, I always start with very speckled bananas. The darker the bananas, the sweeter the bread.

I recommend mixing this bread by hand, you just want the batter blended and well moistened. I despise cleaning my nut chopper, so I've come up with a better technique. Try it, you may never clean your chopper again! I place a couple hands full of pecans in a ziplock bag and gently pound pecans with the edge of a wooden spoon.

Dump pecans into batter and toss ziplock in the trash. Easy, huh?

Butter or grease two loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a fork, squish up 6 very ripe bananas. You want them to resemble chunky baby food.

Add 1 Cup melted butter, 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla (I always use Mexican vanilla - yum)! Mix well.

In separate bowl combine 3 cups all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Mix dry ingredients well then add to banana mixture.