Classic Banana Bread

I was over at Nani’s house the other day where she had 4 black spotted bananas sitting on her counter. The bananas with their dark mushy spots and potent smell were almost perfectly ripe for banana bread. With the thought of banana bread now stuck in my head I stole the bananas from my poor grandma and brought them home to start baking.

Lately, I have been using Aunt Kathy’s recipe- it’s perfection. Using low-fat yogurt instead of 2 sticks of butter makes it moist without all the fat. I like to top the bread off with brown sugar before baking to give it a sweet crunchy crust.

I promise to bring Nani and Potch some banana bread, it's only fair... they were her bananas.



Classic Banana Bread:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• brown sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl and stir with a whisk to combine. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one and at a time and beat well to combine after each addition.

In a small bowl mash bananas, yogurt and vanilla together. Add banana mixture to the butter and beat until blended. Add the flour mixture in 2 parts; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into a well greased loaf pan (8 ½ x 4 ½ in.) or 3 mini loaf pans. *Sprinkle a layer of brown sugar over the top before baking.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. ** When using the mini loaf pans they may not require a full hour, watch carefully.

Leave bread to cool in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack then remove from pan.