Banana bread is one of my favorite things to bake. Way back in college, it was one of the first things I ever tried to bake from scratch (and my roommate seemed to love eating it!).  I had some bananas that I left too close to a window last week and they browned over really quickly. Perfect for baking banana bread!

Browned bananas, perfect for baking!

Banana Bread Recipe – very slightly adapted from the Food Network:

Prep time: 30 minutes (for some reason the Food Network says 2 hours but that seriously must be a mistake)

Cook time: 1 hour and 10 minutes

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

(Carly’s additions: 1 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 extra teaspoon of cinnamon, chocolate chips)

I was baking a double batch so I did half regular and half chocolate chip.

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Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. (my oven runs a little cool so I baked my bread at 350.  A lot of reviews on the Food Network site said that the bread wasn’t done after an hour and 10 minutes at 325 – but 350 worked perfectly for me!)

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork (don’t over mash them, you’ll be mixing them in with the other ingredients later). Mix in the milk and cinnamon (and nutmeg). In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (and until your house smells delicious). Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Plain and chocolate chip banana bread.

perfect banana bread!

This was the easiest recipe to follow! The banana bread was really moist and flavorful. I really liked that addition of nutmeg and the additional bit of cinnamon (and it doesn’t overwhelm the banana flavor).  I put 2 of the little guys in the freezer and we’re snacking on the other loaves now.

What’s your favorite thing to bake?