MY MONKEY'S BREAD

I hate throwing away spoiled food. I always have a twinge of "there goes another $2 in the trash can... again."

And we always, always....  always end up throwing away bananas. We may eat a few, but we never finish the bunch before they turn into a squishy brown mess.

So... why don't I do the smart thing and just buy less bananas? Because mushy bananas give me an excuse to experiment in the kitchen, of course!



Yum. Yum. Yummy.

After all my trials and some non-edible errors, I think I have finally found my favorite recipe for banana bread. It's perfect. Perfect for my palate, that is. And for my little monkey's discerning tastes as well.

I'm not gonna lie, the recipe is really more of a quick bread dessert. It ain't low-carb, low-sugar, low-anything.  And since Paula Deen just came out saying she has diabetes... Let's pretend I just gave you a long lecture and a stern warning about practicing moderation, limiting your sugar intake, and that you-should-practice-healthy-habits stuff.

And you will now ignore the hypothetical lecture if you're gonna make this bread.


I like this recipe because it uses imitation almond extract, which still gives a little bit of a nutty flavor, but without using actual nuts. This is a big plus for sharing the bread with others, since most adults/kids with nut allergies aren't bothered by imitation flavoring. (or if you are my 2 year old daughter who doesn't like the consistency of nuts in any food, or her class at school - where nut allergies are prevalent)


If you want to try it out, here goes:


Preheat your oven to 350.
(In my case, I should turn on the oven sometime the night before making this recipe, since it takes  f  o  r  e  v  e  r   for our oven to get to the selected temperature. Seriously.)


Put 1/4 cup of softened butter and 1 cup of white sugar in your stand mixer.


If you don't have a stand mixer, I suggest you stop right now, put all your ingredients back in the fridge and go out and buy a stand mixer. Your life will be changed and your culinary habits will be forever benefitted by a stand mixer. And you can help stimulate our economy with your purchase. And you should help because I have little faith that our elected officials are going to be able to do anything about it with more pokey porky politics. And on that note, be sure to go vote this year. And on that note, try to not let the annoying political advertising get to you before election day. Did I mention that I love having a DVR, since I can skip over all the mud slinging?


But I digress... Mix the sugar and butter and throw an egg in there as well. Then add a full teaspoon of imitation almond extract. (Or nuts instead, if you really want them.) Then throw three ripe bananas into the newly purchased mixer's bowl as well. Don't worry about mashing the bananas up beforehand, just peel 'em and toss them in. That's the beauty of a good stand mixer.


Add 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.


Mix all this for together, then stop and scrape the side of the bowl and then mix for another 30 seconds.

Now comes the fun part: throw about a cup of white chocolate chips in and then throw another cup of milk chocolate chips in. Or throw the whole bag in.... it's up to you! Be extremely liberal with your chips.  Like Nancy-Pelosi-liberal. Or Eugene-V.-Debs-liberal. Don't try to keep the chips, you must give them away and redistribute them! This bread needs them more than you do!  You need to pay your fair share of chips, in order to do the things that have been decided are national priorities. And I've decided this bread is a national priority!

Oh, I'm so ready for this election year to be over.


Mix the whole gooey mess a few times by hand with a spoon, using your own arm strength (look at you! already working off the calories!) and then pour the batter in an 8x4 loaf pan. The pan will be pretty full.



Oh, snap! Two of my favorite things in one picture.
Banana bread and Nutella.
If your banana bread doesn't turn out,
just toast a piece of it and slap some Nutella on it.
Nutella can make anything taste good.

Bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn your oven down to 325 and bake for another 45 minutes. You may need to vary the length of time, depending on your oven. Remember, this is calibrated for my oven.. And it may still be heating up for something I might cook tomorrow.



Can you smell it?



When you do pull it (fully cooked) out of the oven, you better be ready to fight off the hungry wolves who will come hunting for it!



Hungry wolf.
Or my little monkey, depending on the time of day.

Ingredients


1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp imitation almond extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
White chocolate chips
Milk chocolate chips

Trying to shove the whole piece of bread in her mouth.

Love it!

It's good, Mama!

MORE, please!

If you try this recipe, we do hope you enjoy it. If not, do you have a favorite banana bread recipe you wanna share with me?