Banana Bread Recipe

Nothing beats the flexibility of when it’s best to eat banana bread. Anywhere from being a part of a nutritious breakfast or a late night snack, the easy challenging recipe of making this type of bread calls for banana lovers throughout the world. Start with gathering the right ingredients and setting aside some time for the baking process.

Anytime you begin to cook or bake it is most important to acknowledge the effectiveness of time management. Harborfields High School Senior, Erin Tesoriero says that her worst habit is procrastination, “I leave things to the last minute because I either forget about them or I think have time but then suddenly time is up.”  In this case, make sure the first thing you do is preheat the oven to 350*F. Measure out 2 cups of flour into dry measuring bowls, then evenly spread the top with a knife, to prevent any misstatements. Then, in a large bowl combine (stirring with a whisk) the flour, ¾ teaspoon of baking soda, and ½ teaspoon of salt.

In another large bowl, place 1 cup of sugar and ¼ of softened (melted) butter, and beat with a mixer at medium speed for approximately 1 minute. Next, add the two eggs (one at a time) to the mixed bowl. Now, you’re ready to add 1 ½ cups of mashed bananas (about 3 total bananas), ⅓ cup of plain low fat yogurt, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Blend all these ingredients together, add the flour mixture, and lowly beat until moist.

Finally,  spoon the batter into a medium size, rectangular pan (approx. 8.5 inch by 4.5 inch loaf pan) that is coated with cooking spray (to prevent sticking). Senior Emily Dauth explains that when she cooks, she always forgets to spray oil, or butter on the pan “I try so hard to make a good meal, or dessert but it always turns into a disaster because I forget to use something that’s greasy enough to stop sticking. Usually I just give up after trying to peel the food from the pan.” Lastly, all your hard work is done, so put the batter-filled pan into the 350*F oven, and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. When it is done baking, let it sit in the pan on top of a wire rack for 15 minutes, remove the bread from the pan, and wait for the bread to cool completely on the wire rack.

If you have kids (whether babysitting or spending time to distract them), some fun recipes include easy additions that are featured below.

Stir 1 cup of batter with ½ cup of melted chocolate chips to form a cool marble pattern throughout the bread. Spread it evenly throughout the pan, alternating back and forth between the plain batter and the chocolate chip batter. Finally, drag a knife through the batter to swirl and combine the two together.

The other options include adding in fruit of your choice; some of the favorites include blueberries, or blackberries. However, Senior Becca Interdonati prefers otherwise, “I love fruit but I think fruit on fruit (banana bread with blueberries) is too much fruit and I would make a different recipe.” Perhaps the sweeter route of chocolate chips would be a more favorable option for people with a sweet tooth like Becca. There is no limit with how little or big the amount of berries or chocolate chips you use.

The next fun thing is great for breakfast. By cutting a slice of bread (about ¾ inch each), then toasting for about 1 or 1 & ½ minutes, and adding other ingredients, you can make some tasty french toast. In an additional bowl, whisk in 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of milk, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg, then dip the two sides to the bread in the batter and fry for approximately 3 minutes.

Lastly, you can make the bread into cupcakes by using lined muffin cups in a cupcake tin. If you go the cupcake route, make sure you use the right amount of batter to prevent over spilling.

A recipe like this is simple to make all year round. Whether the holidays are coming around, or a birthday is on its way, this banana bread recipe is great for gifts. Many people favor the gift of fresh food because then they can share it with others around, ands pass the joy and flavors that certain ingredients have to offer.