Banana Bread

I've baked more banana bread than anything else. It's easy, cheap and everyone likes it. Some people think that banana bread is what you make with bad bananas and that's a mistake. Make sure that the bananas are ripe and have lots of freckles, but don't use bananas that are practically spoiled; you don't want the banana inside to be brown. Check the expiration date on the baking soda and baking powder because those do lose their efficacy and that can be a real bummer. For the sugar I like to use pure cane sugar or "azucar morena" made by the brand "Zulka", which they sell at Fresh & Easy.

Dry ingredients:

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

Wet ingredients #1:

1 cup sugar (preferably pure cane or turbinado sugar)

2 eggs (at room temperature)

1 stick of unsalted butter (at room temperature)

Wet ingredients #2:

3 ripe bananas

1 Tbsp. milk or half-in-half

½  tsp. cinnamon

½  tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk, vanilla and cinnamon. In another bowl, sift and mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears. Do not overmix.

Pour batter into a 9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.