We bake a lot of banana bread and I’m not really sure why. It could be because it is so delicious, but seriously, why do we always have so many overly-ripe bananas lying around? I’ve tried a lot of different recipes and this is by far the best banana bread recipe we have. We do have another recipe that is a close second, but there is just something awesome about this one, I think it might be the sour cream. Mmmmm, so moist and delicious.

Alex came home from college this past weekend for Travis’ high school graduation. It is so wonderful to have all three of my kids home at the same time. When I went to sleep on Friday night, I gave a little sigh of satisfaction having everyone under the same roof. Today was a guy bonding sort of day. They decided to go to a jeep show with a couple of friends. Around 7:00 this morning they were starting to load up to leave when our friend handed me a bag and said, “here, these are for the chickens, or, you could make me some banana bread“. I thought it was so funny. I had planned to make some anyway and it was so cute that he saved me some brown bananas so I could bake for him. Between us we had 8 overly ripe, perfect for bread bananas; so I got to work on a double batch, which is 4 luscious loaves. Yay! I did two loaves with chopped walnuts and two loaves with mini chocolate chips. The bread is dense and moist and absolutely delicious!

I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman website quite awhile ago. I added vanilla to mine and I don’t measure the bananas. Other than that, it’s her recipe. Oh, and she uses a Bundt pan, and I used regular loaf pans this time. So I modified bake time. Oh, and I added nuts/chocolate chips – but really, its all her recipe! See changes on the actual recipe below. Now get yourself some gross, brown bananas and get baking!

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour Bundt pan or two loaf pans.

Cream butter and sugar together.

Add eggs one at at time, beating for a few seconds after each addition.

Add mashed bananas and beat (I have to admit that I don’t actually pre-mash the bananas. I just peel them and smoosh them with my bare hands before throwing them in the mixing bowl).

Add vanilla and mix well.

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all combined.

Add walnuts…

Or chocolate chips, if desired.

Pour into Bundt pan or loaf pans…

and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes for Bundt pan, and 1 hour for loaf pans, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Invert on a cooling rack and allow bread to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

So I (Jordan) actually have a good reason for not having finished product pictures this time…we made the banana bread and I immediately raced off to a birthday party sleepover for a friend, and by the time I got home the next day, the banana bread had been completely decimated. 2 loaves went to the guy who donated the bananas, 1 loaf went back to college with Alex, and the other 1? Well, apparently the guys in our family are really good at eating large amounts of banana bread very quickly. So long story short, I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the finished product before it was enjoyed by my apparently starving family 🙂

Best Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter

1 and a 1/2 cups +2 Tablespoons sugar

3 eggs

3-4 mashed ripe bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups + 2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoons baking soda

1 and a 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and a 1/2 cups sour cream

1 cup chopped walnuts or mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour bundt pan or two loaf pans.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at at time, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Add mashed bananas and beat. Add vanilla and mix well.

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all combined. Add chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips, if desired.

Pour into bundt pan or loaf pans and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes for bundt pan, and 1 hour for loaf pans, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Invert on a cooling rack and allow bread to cool slightly before slicing and serving.

tags: bread, sweets, dessert, breakfast, bananas, baking, Bundt