Perfect Banana Bread

We end up buying bananas every time we are out to get our groceries. But do I finish it without letting them go over ripe, is one big question. How much ever I try, not to make them go over ripe, I end up having one/ two of those bananas with their skin turning dark in a couple of days. I dislike its taste then. So I try cooking something out of them rather than having it as is. Usually I end up making Ada or Banana Bread or if I have some dosa batter handy, I turn them into a pancake form having added these bananas.

Banana bread is super easy. Dropping all the ingredients into a bowl and mixing it with a spatula is all what you need to do. So you don't end up having too many greased dishes to wash, which is a bonus (I love to cook but I hate to see the number of dishes piling up to clean after I am done cooking). These make a great breakfast option, but we usually tend to have it as snack during tea time.

I am sure you might have some or the other way of using up the over ripe bananas at home. Let me know what all innovative ways do you come up with, to not waste bananas and also if you haven't tried this banana bread yet, I would highly recommend to go for it. So here is the recipe to a perfect banana bread.

Ingredients

1. 2 big ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2. 5 tbsp of melted butter
3. 3/4 cup of sugar
4. 1 egg , beaten
5. 1 tsp of vanilla extract
6. 1 tsp of baking soda
7. A pinch of salt
8. 1 cup of chopped almonds
9. 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour 

Method

• In a bowl, take the whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt. Mix it, so that all the ingredients gets distributed evenly.
• In a mixing bowl, take the mashed banana. Stir in the melted butter, the beaten egg and the vanilla extract into it. Now add the sugar and chopped almonds. Stir it well.
• Add the whole wheat flour little by little while you stir it well to bring in all the ingredients together into a batter.
• Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. 
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Bake the batter for 50 minutes to 1 hour or untill a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove the baked bread from the oven and let it cool. Remove it from the pan and slice it down. Serve it with maple syrup or some whipped cream or butter.

Tips

1. Adding almonds is one way of making the banana bread rich by giving that extra crunch in every bite. You could alternate it with walnuts/cashews. At the same time you may choose not to add any nuts either.
2. You could use all purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour.
3. The amount of sugar mentioned in the above recipe makes the banana bread medium sweet, which is perfect for us. If you would want the bread to be more on the sweeter side, add more sugar to it.