An Easy Banana Bread Recipe

This is a very easy banana bread recipe if you have a bread machine.

Ingredients {with comments}

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• half a teaspoon of baking soda
• three-quarters of a cup of white sugar. {We found this too sweet so I now use half a cup}
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• two bananas cut in half {Since we don’t like banana "lumps" in the bread, I cut the bananas in half and then into slices. I also put the flour in first and then the bits of banana which I then toss around in the flour. This prevents the banana bits from sticking together.}

Directions:

• Place all ingredients in the bread machine pan
• Select the "dough" setting and let it mix for 3 to 5 minutes. Then press "stop. " While it is stopped, check that all the flour has been mixed in from the corners. Turn the dough setting on for another minute of two if needed. Smooth out the top with a rubber spatula.
• At this point, you can take out the dough mixer paddle if you want to. The dough is actually a thick batter and I found it tended to get on me and everything I touched.  {For the first time, in the loaf I am making today, I am leaving the mixer paddle in. }
• Select "bake" and press "start." The time will vary with machines but should be around 50 minutes, the recipe says. In my machine it takes about an hour and 15 minutes. Test by putting in a toothpick, or, if you are like me, a knife, in the center and it should come out dry. If it doesn’t, let it go on baking in 10 minute increments and test again.
• Remove the pan from the machine but allow the bread to remain in the pan for around 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove the bread to finish cooling on a wire rack.

QUOTATIONS:

"There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way."

Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957)