lazy susan: december (banana bread)

The theme for our Lazy Susan this month is: desserts!

We thought December would be the perfect time to share some recipes that you can in turn share with your family, friends, and neighbors over the holiday season. If you follow along the links at the bottom of all of our posts, you will be taken to the next recipe and the next blogger. At the end you will have clicked through eight different dessert recipes.

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BANANA BREAD

This recipe was discovered one weekend afternoon while hanging around the house with my brother Shane and his girlfriend Rachel. We always tend to have a few bananas in a state of rot, and Rachel and I were craving a warm, sweet, baked good. (As per usual). Rachel put Shane on the hunt to find a great banana bread recipe, and after spending some time, we found this one on Food Network. He told us he picked it because it had the most reviews and the highest rating. So Rachel gave it a try while I sat on the couch. (This is the best way to enjoy banana bread.)

We loved it, and have made it several times since. Drew is usually the first one to get a steaming hot slice straight out of the oven. I am shortly behind him. It fills the house with the most delicious scent.

I wish smells were photograph-able.

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Whenever I am in the kitchen, it is a requirement that I have music playing. So when you make this banana bread, pop on some tunes, and follow these instructions:

I put out all the Christmas records today, so I chose from the pile, and Charlie Brown Christmas it was.

INGREDIENTSES:

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

First steps, not photographed: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Then, cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Isn’t that too relative? I never know exactly how light and fluffy, so I just wing it. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well.

Grab another bowl, smallish, and mash your (3) bananas with a fork.

Then mix the milk and cinnamon into your mushy banana.

In a third bowl, (I never said this was easy), mix together your dry ingredientses. (Flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) You actually need to do this step, I have tried to skip the third bowl thing out of laziness and my bread was too moist. Don’t try it in one bowl people. Not good.

So now you have three bowls. One with your egg/butter/sugar mixture, another with your banana/milk/cinnamon mixture, and a third with your flour/salt/etc.

Add the banana mixture to the original creamed mixture and stir.

Now add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour the batter into the buttered bread pan and and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Now for the really hard part: waiting for an hour while the smell of this deliciousness teases you. You could clean up if you want. I didn’t. I sat at the kitchen table drinking water and reading Twitter until it was time to pick my kids up from school.

When we got home, Mckenna said, “MMMMMmmm something smells good.”

We had ten more minutes to wait.

Once it is out of the oven, set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes.

We can never wait that long.

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Join us on the first of each month as this diverse group of food lovers share their favorite recipes, tips and tricks inspired by the seasons.

To keep moving along our Lazy Susan, click here to be taken to Amy Boring’s blog for her moms’ famous caramel corn.