Banana Bread

This recipe makes 5 mini loaves of dark, crusty banana bread...or 2 larger loaves.

½ cup real butter (1 cube)

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2-1/4 cups flour

½ tsp. salt
1-1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 cup mashed, over-ripe bananas

½ cup buttermilk (or ¼ cup sour cream mixed with ¼ cup milk)

½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

Additional sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or, if using larger pans, bake at 325 degrees).  Cream butter and sugar well together.  Add eggs.  Mix well.  Mix in bananas. Mix in buttermilk (or sour cream & milk). In separate bowl, whisk together baking soda, flour and salt. By hand, fold flour mixture into wet mixture, but don’t over-mix at this point. Add nuts, if desired.  Pour into greased loaf pans (mini or large).  Sprinkle tops generously with granulated sugar, if you want a crispy sugar top on your loaves. Bake until done…this will be longer than you think!  The edges need to be dark and pulled away from sides of pans.  Large pans will take an hour or longer.  Small pans will take 35 min. or so.  (Test if you need to…so you don’t get a loaf with a gooey middle!)  This is a yummy, dark, crusty-type of banana bread.