Banana Bread

This is the banana bread that almost did not happen. A while back, I had spotted this recipe on TheKitchenCafe blog and started drooling immediately. Could anything be better?...warm banana bars with whipped cream cheese frosting...Mmmmmmmmm...no, I don't think so either.

I knew that this would be a recipe I had to make with my son. He loves helping me with any kind of baked good. I liked the fact that it had a lot of hands-on steps for him (peeling bananas, mashing bananas, pouring ingredients, mixing batter, etc.). So, 2 weeks ago, I decided that over the weekend we would make the bars. Days before, I put the three bananas I was going to use to the side. However,when baking day came, I had a problem....instead of three bananas, I only had 2!! ARGH....

My husband had given my daughter one of the bananas for breakfast. He didn't know I needed 3 and she is a "nana" fiend!!! So, no banana bars for us that day :(
The next day was grocery shopping day. I went and bought LOTS of bananas and set my 3 aside. However, I still needed to wait till the next weekend b/c I the bananas had to be very ripe.

Finally, this past Saturday, me and my little chef got started on our banana bars. I quickley realized I had a problem though. I was missing the sour cream----double ARGH!!! I looked on Melanie's blog again and that is when I stumbled upon this recipe. It did not require sour cream, but needed buttermilk and buttermilk I had! YAHOO!...we were back in buisness.

This banana bread was very good and very moist. My husband said it was the best banana bread he had ever eaten. It did take a good 10-15 minutes longer to bake though than the recipe states, so just keep an eye on the clock and remember to test with a toothpick or long wood skewer. Happy Baking!

See all those holes on top...that's from me poking it so many times to see if it was done.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas (I use about 3 average sized bananas)
4 tablespoons buttermilk
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
dash baking soda

Directions
Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture. Mix until combined. Divide batter into greased and floured bread pans and bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. This recipe makes about one large loaf of banana bread (I usually have a bit leftover for a few of my mini bread pans).