Banana Bread for the Holiday

Lainey asked for Banana Bread over the holiday.  I have the most wonderful recipe.  I got it from the Perennials  Southern Celebration of Foods and Flavors cookbook.  The problem with cooking the banana bread is that it requires very ripe bananas--the kind of bananas no one wants to eat, the kind with the brown peel.  I usually toss these in the freezer to use later, but I was fresh out.  I asked the produce guy at Publix for some very ripe bananas.  He seemed perplexed that I would want these and did not think they had any in the back room.  I bought 4 --but these were not as ripe as I like.  When I got home, I asked my friend Google how to speed up the ripening of bananas.  Google advised that I place the bananas on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Now that I have ripe bananas, it's time to get out the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 fully ripe)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Combine ingredients in order listed; mixing after each additions.  Bake in greased & floured 9x5 inch loaf pan.  I used a 8 mini-loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for an hour in 1 loaf pan or at 350 for 30 minutes in the mini loaf pan.  

Joy