Banana Bread

This whole situation started with banana bread. My husband loves nut-free banana bread, and we had a load of aging bananas that needed a home. I found and tweaked a recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

I do add nuts when I have them, but this recipe makes two stout loaves (part of the tweaking) so we have a nutty loaf and a nut free loaf. Originally this recipe was supposed to go into one loaf pan, but ho-boy it made a delicious and burned banana mess in my oven. Two loaf pans later, and holy-mackerel I made banana bread!

To cook:
-Preheat oven to 350
-Butter Pans
-In 1 bowl mix flour, baking soda and salt
-In another bowl cream room temp butter (I microwave cold butter until it just gets soft, only a few seconds)with brown sugar
-Add mashed bananas and beaten eggs to the butter sugar mixture and stir that together
-Mix in the dry ingredients until everything looks pretty uniform in texture and wetness (not too long or something terrifying might happen)
-Divide mixture between the two loaf pans and bake for 45-75 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (check both loaves)
-Turn onto a cooling rack
-Consume!

The cooking time surprised me, because it took soooo long, but it turned out well. Two tablespoons may seem like a lot of vanilla, and I am heavy handed with vanilla but I will address my solution to that obstacle in my next post. In the mean time, go eat some dense, and delicious banana bread, people are crazy for it. Like, take an entire loaf with you on the way to work and eat in the car, crazy.