YONR #4: 10 Minute Banana Bread

Photo courtesy of http://www.thedeliciouslife.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/bananabread_loafpan.jpg

I sure am ahead of the game with new recipes so far.  My goal was one new recipe a week and this week I'm already up to 4!  (Maybe I'm just banking recipes for the future).

Allison and I made some Chocolate Chip Banana Bread for her to take to her new friends at her new daycare today.  I had 2 ripe bananas and a reason to use them up and not eat it myself, so this was a perfect excuse to bake and send away.

I found this banana bread recipe at a blog called The Fresh Loaf: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bananabread

I liked that I only needed 2 bananas and the words "10 minutes" in the title.  We decided to add in some chocolate chips to make this more appealing to the day care kids...who loved it by the way!  This was a very good recipe and I will definitely make it again.

Makes 1 full-sized loaf or 2 small loaves

Preheat the oven to 350.

In one bowl, combine:
1/2 stick (4-5 tablespoons) butter, softened
2 eggs
2 or 3 very ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar
Use a potato masher, fork, or spoon to squish the banana and mix the ingredients together. It is alright for there to be small (1 centimeter) chunks of banana in the batter, but you want most of the banana to be reduced to mush.

In another bowl, combine:
1 1/3 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) (We used it!)

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the ingredients are blended together.

If you like, stir in additional ingredients here, such as chopped walnuts or pecans, dried cherries or apricots, or chocolate chips. A handful (about a half a cup) is about right.

Pour the dough into greased baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Small loaves take around 30 minutes, a normal-sized loaf takes around 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven. This bread is great warm, but it is excellent cold too. After they have cooled for 5 or 10 minutes the loaves can be removed from the pan to cool. Once they are cool they can be individually wrapped and frozen.