Pandemic Banana Bread

One of the upsides of living through the COVID pandemic of Spring 2020 was Time to create and connect with family. My family, like many others spent time cooking together and playing games. The most popular recipe made by thousands who hunkered down at home was banana bread.  Why was that?  I’m guessing because it was reminiscent of days gone by and that bananas were available at the grocery store?

Biting into a slice of banana bread conjures memories of my neighbor Mrs. Larsen who was an excellent baker. When I a very little girl she would call me into her kitchen from her back porch. I was met with a hug and slice of banana bread covered in butter. Does anyone else eat it like that??  I hate to admit it, but I still eat banana bread that way. It’s also an excellent base for a a banana bread  caramel Sunday, or French toast with buttermilk syrup.

Here is the version my family made while we were trapped at home for two months.  Note that I did not have loaf pans so I used what was on hand — 6 inch cake pans which worked just fine.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla m2/1/2 cups flour (increased to 2 3/4 for high altitude)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Great bottoms of 2 loaf pans or 6 inch cake pans.
In a large musing bowl, mix sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, bananas and buttermilk to the butter mixture and best with an electric mixer until smooth.
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add these dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix just until combined
Add the belated to the two prepared pans.
Place pans in center rack of your oven and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool pans 10 minutes then loosen the sides of loaves from pan and remove the loaves. Place them on a cooling rack for about an hour before cutting into them.