Buttermilk Banana Bread

I have made a lot of banana bread over the years and I have to say this is one of the better versions I have made. The banana flavor is light and delicate, but still clearly there. The texture is soft and moist without being oily in any way and the edges are just firm enough to allow even and smooth slicing, without being tough.

One of Chris' coworkers had requested banana bread the other day and I had a pile of bananas growing out of hand in the freezer so making the bread was certainly not a problem for me. I might have made one of my earlier versions like the best banana bread or the very good graham flour banana bread, but a couple of things led me to this recipe instead.

First off I had found the recipe on tastespotting and the blogger from My Kitchen Cafe claimed it was the best version of banana bread she had ever made, and the only recipe for banana bread she used. Since I personally love banana bread I'm always up for a new recipe, especially one good enough for someone else to go to time and time again.

Secondly, I happened to have a ton of buttermilk on hand. Not just a little extra buttermilk -- but 2 gallons that needed to be used up. No, I didn't go crazy at the store or anything like that. Instead, Chris and I were invited to a buttermilk fried chicken dinner at a friend's house and his wife had misread the grocery list and bought two and a half gallons of buttermilk instead of the two half gallons on the list. They sent the extra home with us and I started looking for recipes.

This happened to be one of the first I ran across, and with all that extra buttermilk in the house and a specific request for banana bread it was an easy decision for me to add this recipe to my list. In the meantime I have made quite a few recipes calling for buttermilk and am looking for even more. And since I'm on night shift this week I even made a double batch of buttermilk biscuits at 4:30 in the morning so that Chris could bring fresh, hot biscuits to work for breakfast one day.



Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas (I use about 3 average sized bananas)
4 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 inch pan.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture. Mix until combined. Divide batter into greased and floured bread pans and bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.