Rotten Bananas

When life hands you brown, mushy, powerfully potent bananas, make banana bread.  Sans the nuts.  Because if I haven't said it enough, I don't like nuts in desserts.  They just don't belong.  Thank you to Chef Joanne Chang's Flour Bakery in Boston for being the inspiration for this bread.  So easy.  So yum.





Here's what you'll need:

1 2/3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup and 2 Tbs Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Oil
3-4 Bananas, very ripe, mashed (I used 3 seriously ginormous bananas.  The more you use, the more banana-y your bread.  Duh.)
2 Tbs Buttermilk (can use Sour Cream instead, I just happened to have Buttermilk.)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Optional: Chocolate Chips.  Come on.  They make everything better.


1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit.  Line bottom of a loaf pan (I used a 9"x5" pan, they can vary in size, adjust bake time accordingly) with parchment paper.


2. Beat sugar and eggs until light and fluffy, forming soft peaks.  Drizzle in oil while still beating.  Add mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla, mix well.  Sift in all dry ingredients, flour, soda, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and fold gently into wet mixture.
  
**We fold here instead of mixing because mixing will take all the air out of the batter that you just whipped in when you were mixing the eggs and sugar.  Air in your batter=better bread.
**Here is where you fold in the chocolate chips if you so choose.  You may also sprinkle them on top after you have poured batter into the pan.  Or pour some batter, sprinkle, pour some batter, sprinkle, etc, for fun chocolatey layers.


3. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.  
**This bread can take a long time to bake, depending on your oven and size of pan, so really trust the "knife in loaf" method.  As soon as it comes out clean, your bread's done.  And this bread is so thick and moist, it's hard to overcook it, unless you realllllly overcook it, so don't worry about leaving it in a few minutes too long.