Banana Bread

A reason to let your bananas get a bit too ripe for everyday eating.

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas

• 1/2 cup of mayonnaise

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon of banana extract

• 1 1/2 cups of flour

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup of sugar

Special Tools:

• 1 9x3 bread loaf pan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Spray your bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

3. In a large bowl mash the bananas.

4. Add the remaining wet ingredients to the bananas and mix well; mayonnaise, egg, vanilla extract, and the banana extract.

5. In a separate smaller bowl combine all of the dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar.

6. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and combine but don’t over mix. The mix will be thick, don’t worry it’s supposed to be this way.

7. Pour the batter into the greased bread loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

8. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow it to cool before trying to remove it from the pan.

Your house will smell like bananas while it’s cooking and for a few hours after. It’s fantastic.

Some notes about this recipe:

• I do not like metal loaf pans, whenever possible I use glass. * 2024 Update I now own two cast iron loaf pans and highly recommend those as well as glass.

• I do not love mayonnaise. I use it when it’s needed; in chicken salad or lightly as a spread on a sandwich. But I can’t stand the smell of it. It hurt me to put it in this recipe when I first made it, but - it’s good.

• Be sure to cover the leftovers tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

• So many recipes for banana bread call for nuts. Fine, put them in yours but I won’t in mine. I don’t like it. If you want to, a 1/2 cup of some chopped nut is enough.

• Finally, if you can’t see it, it ain’t buttered.