Banana Bread

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​Every Bermudian has a banana bread recipe – or knows someone who does! When a stalk is ready, there’s a whole lot of fruit that ripens quickly. Beyond selling them and giving them away, we make banana bread. The best bananas for baking are the ones that are over-ripe and turning brown. They yield the sweetest taste for your banana bread.
 



Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup of granulated sugar
¼ cup of light brown sugar. I recommend light brown sugar because the darker brown sugar contains more molasses and browns faster.
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (this is roughly 3 to 4, medium sized bananas)
½ cup milk or buttermilk. I prefer buttermilk but either works
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
 
Optional ‘add-in’s’:
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup of mini chocolate chips
Or a ½ cup combo of both!
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease bottom of 1 loaf pan measuring 9x5x3 or two pans that measure 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½. Alternatively you can line the pans with parchment paper or tin foil.

Mix butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until well blended. Add the buttermilk (or milk) and the mashed bananas. Beat until smooth.

Mix in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon just until incorporated. If using the optional ‘add-ins’, stir them in.

Pour into pans. Bake the two 8 inch pans for an hour. Bake the 9 inch pan for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the loaves in the pan. Loosen the banana bread by gently sliding a knife between the bread and the sides of the pan. Slice and enjoy!

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