Banana Bread You Won't Be Able To Leave Alone

On Saturday morning I had some bananas sitting on the counter that were so ripe they were just about ready to get up and walk away, so on the spur of the moment I made banana bread.

I didn't come up with this recipe - is it even possible to reinvent banana bread anymore? - but it is a really good one and I highly recommend it.

Ingredients (makes two loaves or one loaf and 30 mini muffins):

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, beaten
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
chopped cashews or walnuts
chopped dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar together, add in the eggs and bananas, and stir well. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. I used the electric beaters to get a really smooth batter. Stir in the vanilla.

Pour your batter into greased loaf pans or muffin pans. I used half of my batter for a loaf of bread, and the rest for mini muffins.

I wanted there to be some variety so I added in the nuts and cranberries at different times. The loaf didn't have anything extra in it though I did sprinkle some chopped cashews onto the top before it went into the oven. I poured out 12 plain mini muffins, then added some cashews to the remaining batter and poured out 12 more. I then added the dried cranberries and poured out the remaining muffins (about 6).

The muffins will bake faster, so only leave them in the oven for 15-20 minutes. The loaf took about twice as long. Use a toothpick or clean knife to test if the bread is done by sliding it into the center of the bread and seeing if it comes out with no batter residue left behind.

Remove your bread from the pans and let cool on a rack or plate. I find the bread is less soggy on the bottom if you flip it on its side or top while it's cooling.

How to serve it? With butter, jam, or all on its own. I spread almond butter on a slice this week, and I think I've found my new favourite indulgence!