A slice of banana heaven...

I've baked countless loaves of banana bread with my leftover too-ripe bananas BUT never have I ever praised myself for such a job well done.  Usually, I follow the recipe from James Beard's Bread book and a few times of late, the bread has turned out undercooked in the middle and overcooked on the sides.  I thought maybe my oven is not well calibrated or did I just throw in too many bananas?  Overall, not satisfactory.  So, I gave up on his recipe finally and decided to spare my family the torture of eating bad banana breads.  I googled for the "Best Ever Banana Bread" and guess what I came up with?

Best Ever Banana Bread
The Best of the Best - Vol. 1 (Page: 15)
Grand Slam (Page: 21)
Freeze overripe bananas in their skins in a plastic bag - when you've got 6, you're ready to make the best banana bread you've ever tasted.
A tip from our friend Janice on Salt Spring: you can add frozen blueberries but don't mix them into the batter - the colour runs. Just alternate batter and blueberries as you fill the bundt pan.
Ingredients:
1 cup (250 mL)butter
2 cups (500 mL) sugar
3 cups (650 mL) mashed ripe bananas (6)
4 eggs, well beaten
2 1/2 cups (625 mL)flour
2 tsp. (10 mL)baking soda
1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
1 tsp. (5 mL) nutmeg
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add bananas and eggs and beat until well mixed. Mix dry ingredients and blend with banana mixture, but do not overmix. Pour into 2 lightly greased loaf pans or a bundt pan. Bake 55 minutes to 1 hour; test for doneness (toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean) and cool on rack for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Freezes beautifully.

I didn't have a chance to take any photos of how beautiful the banana bread turned out cos Emmanuel and I wolfed it down so quickly.  It baked so beautifully and turned out moist and yummy, no undercooking and the sides were nice and crusty without drying out.  Just halve the recipe for a loaf pan.  But it is so good, why not make a bundt pan instead?  

I compared it with the James Beard recipe I use often or any other banana bread recipe, and honestly, the basics are the same except maybe a little bit less flour in this one.  


This recipe, will be the ONLY banana bread recipe I will use henceforth.  In fact, I can't wait for my Del Montes to overripe soon!  ;p