Banana Bread Recipe

The only bread I have ever made from scratch is Banana Bread with many variations. It's clearly my favorite but I do want to try to make a Zucchini Bread and an Orange-Cranberry Bread. If you have any good recipes for these or other breads please pass them along. The Banana Bread is fairly easy and quick with a prep time of about 25 minutes and a bake time of 45-60 minutes. I came up with this recipe by picking and choosing certain ingredients from several recipes I reviewed and then adding my own twist.

Here's the recipe:

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 very ripe bananas (the peel should almost be black), mashed
1 ripe banana, cut up into small pieces
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash the 2 very ripe bananas in a small bowl. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract to the bananas, stir until combined, and then set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In yet a separate bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until fluffy, about 3 minutes (you may use a hand mixer instead of whisk). Drizzle in oil as you continue to whisk. Then add butter and whisk until combined. Add banana mixture to egg mixture and stir with a large spoon just until combined. Add cut up banana pieces to the mixture and stir lightly (this is a trick I learned from my mom; it really adds an extra burst of banana flavor). Fold in flour mixture to the egg/banana mixture in three equal batches, stirring until there is no visible flour after each batch. Once all the flour mixture has been folded in, pour the finished batter into a lightly oiled or lined loaf pan (I just spray it with Pam). Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Bread is done when you can stick a fork in the center of the loaf and it comes out clean. Definitely eat a slice while it's still warm with a little more butter. Indeed...butter makes everything taste better!

Variations: To make Sweet Potato-Banana Bread substitute the 1 cut up ripe banana with 1 small or 1/2 large sweet potato or yam, cooked and mashed. You can also add walnuts, raisins, or dried cranberries to your liking.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the bread but here's one of Carter because he's just so darn cute.