Banana Bread

My mom used a recipe like this for many years, and I have taken that plus others and adapted them into this recipe. I like it because it is moist and uses part whole wheat flour. This is a great way to use up all those ripe, soft and discolored bananas.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened (or oil)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat flour- may use extra 1/4 cup if batter turns out too moist
1 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large bananas, mashed (approximately 1 1/2 cups mashed)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4- 1/3 cup buttermilk or sour milk or yogurt
1/2-3/4 cup chopped nuts, if desired


Directions:
Cream together butter and sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla and milk. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add into wet ingredients. Add the mashed bananas and chopped nuts. Pour into 1 greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes * or until sharp knife poked in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack to finish cooling. Wrap in plastic- keeps well in the refrigerator.


This is also good with mini-chocolate chips mixed in the batter just before baking. Feel free to try blueberries or other fruit, as well.


*When I made this for the picture, I used a sweet bread pan that was 5x12 inches. I only needed to bake it about 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. If you are using the shorter but wider bread pans, it will probably take about 1 hours to bake- watch carefully so it is not overbaked.