February 23: National Banana Bread Day

I love banana bread.  Absolutely love it.  I inherited a recipe from my grandmother and I've made it many times every year for as long as I can remember.  When I was younger, I couldn't do much other than mash the bananas and just watch an adult do all the actual baking.  When I got older, I was the one that made it.  I was a little offended one year, when a family member eventually 'fessed up to preferring a banana bread made by a family bread.  But that was okay- that family member didn't know that the friend's recipe used buttermilk and accidentally grabbed what he thought was milk for his cereal the next member.  Yeah, I'll admit to laughing a little. 

So here's the recipe I got from my grandmother.

Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 bar) softened butter
2 mashed ripe bananas (the kind that are black on the outside but not completely mushy inside)
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Beat together sugar and butter until creamy. Mix in eggs.  Mix in milk, bananas and vanilla.  Stir in remaining ingredients by hand. (That's according to my grandmother - I always just use the beater.  It's just so much easier.) Bake in greased 9x5 loaf pan in 350 degree oven until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (~50 minutes).  You could also add 1/4 cup raisins, if you feel like it.  I like to bake this recipe in muffin portions.  If I make them bite-szie, they disappear really quickly.