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Two Banana Bread

Best possible banana bread, if you ask me. Below, I say "flour" and "sugar." Sometimes I get into a counterculture thing and make this with all whole wheat flour and brown sugar. I notice that if I do that and bring it into the office, it does not disappear anywhere near as fast, and in fact I get a piece with lunch. Point is, I love it that way but your audience might not. With all white flour and sugar, everyone loves it for the perfect banana bread that it is. A good compromise is a mix of whole wheat and white flour and also a mix of white and brown sugar. Experiment and see what you think. Maybe the first time, go all refined (unless you know you love whole foods) so you will see what a great banana bread this is. Also read about.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan. Actually, I line the pan with buttered brown paper (cut up from a grocery bag; the paper that wraps the stick of butter will go a long way to butter the brown paper.)

Cream (blend with a fork until smooth -- easy if the butter has been left out to warm up):
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar

Blend in:
2 large ripe bananas (mash them in with the fork)
2 eggs, beaten (make a well in the batter, whip up the eggs a bit, then stir in)
The batter will not be entirely smooth. Don't worry.

Sift dry ingredients together into the batter:
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt
Stir in until smooth, pour into the pan and bake. As with any bread or cake with baking powder, be prepared to pop it into the oven as soon as possible after the baking powder is wet, so as to get maximum leavening.

Bake until done. Hah! I don't know how long. Half an hour? After you have smelled it and then stopped smelling it, pat it gently on top. Don't let too much heat out of the oven until you know it's done! If it springs back, take it out. Don't overcook! Delicious hot, delicious cold, delicious with milk, delicious with coffee or tea.