Banana Bread

I mentioned yesterday that I have been trying to save a little money on my groceries lately. I was inspired by Crystal Paine of Money Saving Mom to go to the store and look for the clearance deals. I have been getting some great deals on meats, bread, yogurt, and milk. Yesterday morning I happened upon some clearance out bananas, and I decided that it would be really fun to make some banana bread.

I haven’t been able to bake in a while because I’ve been so busy. But I really enjoy baking, it’s one of my favorite things to do. There’s something fun about making something from scratch and feeding it to your family. I also occasionally try new things (and fail) and torture my family by making them eat them, so there’s also that.

When I got home from the store, I went looking for a recipe for banana bread. Over the years I have tried a lot of recipes for banana bread. Some of them have been awesome, especially the ones that contain cream cheese. Because cream cheese makes everything better. I found this recipe on the Kitchn. I have used many recipes from here before when I was making dinner or cooking something from scratch. The recipes on this site are always really reliable.

Something that I really liked about this recipe is that you were able to sub out some of the ingredients for more healthy options. I decided that instead of using white sugar that I would try to use my coconut sugar. It has  been sitting in my pantry for a while and I really needed to use it.

That was the only substitution that I made yesterday but I was thinking that you could also say about coconut oil for the butter if you wanted to. You could also use brown sugar instead of coconut or white sugar. I really think that the coconut sugar gave it a lot of flavor. I also didn’t completely mash my bananas so there are some chunks of banana in the bread. I personally think the big chunks make the bread even better .

Some ideas for using your banana bread :

Send it to lunch with your kids.

Have a slice for breakfast with your coffee or tea.

Use it as a dessert or serve it with ice cream.

Add some chocolate chips and make muffins for the kids breakfast or lunches.

Serve it as a side at dinner.

You can find the original recipe here.

Banana Bread

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Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 8 tablespoons 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup Coconut sugar
• A little bit of sugar to sprinkle on top
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 medium bananas very ripe
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips

Instructions

 

• Arrange a rack in the bottom third of the oven and heat to 350°F. Line an 8x5-inch loafpan
• with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the long sides to form a sling. Spray the inside with cooking spray.
• If using nuts, toast them in the oven for 10 minutes as the oven is pre-heating.
• Melt the butter in the microwave or you can substitute coconut oil.
• Combine the butter and sugar. Place the melted butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk until combined. (You can also use a stand mixer)
• Add the eggs. Mix until completely combined and the mixture is smooth.
• Add the milk and vanilla, mix in.
• Mash in the bananas. Peel the bananas and add them to the bowl. Using the end of the whisk or a dinner fork, mash them into the batter. Leave the bananas as chunky or as smooth as you prefer. If you prefer an entirely smooth banana bread, mash the bananas.
• Fold in the nuts or chocolate, if using.
• Scatter the nuts or chocolate over the batter and gently fold them in. separately until no more lumps remain, and then whisk them into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy!!