Skilled and Sassy

I had two bananas that were past the prime of me being able to eat them… so instead of wasting them I thought ”why not make some banana bread?”!

Unfortunately two bananas are not enough to make a whole loaf so a useful trick to rapidly ripen bananas is to bake them!
Put the desired number of bananas you need ripened in an oven at 350*F for about 5-10 minutes. They will get dark and continue to darken once removed from the oven as they are still hot.

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Soft batter breads like this as well as items such as muffins are batters that are best made by hand. You don’t want to use a mixer because you can over mix them quickly if you cannot feel what you are doing through the whisk or spatula in hand.
We start with mashing the four ripened bananas in a large mixing bowl. I use my whisk to mash them up so I don’t have to dirty another utensil!

Now that those are all mashed up, add your melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. (Melt your butter in the microwave… its way easier and faster than on the stove top!) Whisk everything together until incorporated.

Next up are the dry ingredients! You don’t want to over mix in this step, just add the cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and flour to the bowl and whisk together until incorporated.

Last but not least, fold in the sour cream and pecans! The sour cream keeps the banana bread moist while the pecans add a nice crunch.
Your final batter should look something similar to this!

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Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake at 350*F for 45-60 minutes. Check with a toothpick and remove from oven when the toothpick comes out clean. The “seam” at the top may be a little gooey still but that’s okay!

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Once the bread has cooled, remove from the pan. Slice and enjoy! I love mine warmed just a bit with a little bit of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar!

Ingredients:

• 4 ripe, large bananas (about 2 cups)
• ½ cup butter (1 stick), melted
• ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ tsp Watkin’s vanilla extract
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sour cream 
• ¾ cup chopped pecans (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350*F.
Prep loaf pan by spreading with pan coat spray and set aside.
Mash ripe bananas in large bowl with whisk, by hand.
Add brown sugar, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla vanilla extract.
Whisk together until combined.
Add cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and flour. Whisk together to fully incorporate all of the dry ingredients.
Add sour cream and chopped pecans (if desired). Fold in with a rubber spatula.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake 45-60 minutes. Do NOT over bake!