Banana Bread

We eat a lot of bananas in our house, but just like with the banana ice cream I made last month, sometimes we don't get to them all in time and they start getting too ripe to eat raw.  It happened again a couple of weekends ago so I had to come up with something to do with them.  Again, I may have been rushing fall again a bit but my first thought was banana bread.  I have been searching for a banana bread recipe for some time and just hadn't found one that I really liked.  I decided to hit the internet and try to find a new one to try with these bananas that were crying out to be eaten.  I found this recipe from Williams Sonoma and decided to give it a try.  I am glad I did.  The bread was nice and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.  I wish it had a little bit more banana flavor and next time I will adjust the amount of banana I use.  The recipe below takes this into account and I have already adjusted it to add more banana to the batter.  I also added some chopped walnuts that weren't in the original recipe since I had them in the house.  You can very easily leave these out.  This was great for a quick breakfast or a snack and it was really good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.  So versatile!

Banana Bread
Adapted from Williams Sonoma

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
4 medium very ripe bananas, peeled
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

In a large bowl, smash the bananas with a fork.  Add the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and mix until well blended.  Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir just until blended.  Fold in the walnuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan, spreading it evenly.  Bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.

Remove from oven and let cool 15-20 minutes.  Remove from pan and continue to let cool on a wire rack for another 15 minutes (or if you are like me, immediately cut and eat a piece since I can't resist warm banana bread).