If you’re making banana bread . . . use this recipe!

Last night I met two of my sons and my oldest son’s girlfriend for dinner at a lovely downtown St. Pete restaurant.  We had a delicious meal under the stars on a beautiful night!  The only way it could have gotten any better would be to have my youngest son and my husband join us.  It was really a wonderful night and I thoroughly enjoyed being with them!  Isn’t it wonderful to enjoy your adult children?

I can’t seem to visit my children without bringing food.  Last night I brought barbecue chopped pork tenderloin with coleslaw and rolls and two loaves of banana bread.  I have people ask for my banana bread recipe all the time, so I’m going to share it. It’s moist and flavorful – and the reason I brought two loaves is because one was with chocolate chips and one was without.  You can add toasted pecans too.  So good!!

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1  1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1  1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 mashed bananas – make sure they are very ripe

1/2 cup sour cream OR plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup toasted pecans, optional

1/2 cup (or more!) milk chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Then add dry ingredients and then add remaining ingredients.  Mix well – I just mix by hand.  Bake at 350 for an hour in a greased large loaf pan.  You can also use three small loaf pans and then you can add pecans and chocolate chips to some pans and not others.  (Gotta make everyone happy, right?)  I usually test with a skinny blade knife to see if they’re done because it seems like my large loaf takes a little more than an hour and the small loaves only take 40-45 minutes.  The knife should come out nice and clean when it’s done without batter sticking to it.  Let it sit for a few minutes in the pan to cool then it should come out easily to rest on a plate.

Delicious!  And such a treat with that first cup of coffee in the morning.