when life gives you ripe bananas...

...make banana bread. That's the saying right? Since I've been up to the eyeballs in boxes and newspaper this week, getting ready to move, while also back at work, and planning for a weekend away, I've been trying to keep my head above water.  When I checked the fruit bowl and found that my bananas were way past eating prime, my first reaction was to be totally bummed. Then, I realized I had the perfect opportunity to make banana bread. I don't have the extra time to be baking these days but it really was super quick. The best part was that then I got to smell the bread baking while I packed and had a delicious snack once it was ready!

Get ready with:

your electric mixer

a spatula

prep bowls

a loaf pan

a stick of butter at room temperature 

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup of mashed ripe banana 

1] Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour your loaf pan and set it aside. Attach the paddle attachment to your mixer, cream butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat to incorporate.

2] In a medium bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt). Add to the mix until just combined. Add bananas and vanilla, mix to combine. If you would like to add nuts (1/2 cup) this would be the time.

3] Pour into the prepared loaf pan, sprinkle the top lightly with sugar, and bake about an hour and ten minutes. Test with a cake tester in the middle of the loaf and when it comes out clean, it's done!

4] Remove from loaf pan and place on a cooling rack. Slice into thick pieces, toast and butter if you so desire.

My favorite part of this bread is that when you sprinkle the top with sugar it caramelizes while it bakes. Delicious! You can see in the photos that it is so irresistible that my man took a crumble off the caramelized top before I could even take my photo. Ha!