Ripe Bananas

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I let bananas get too ripe. I love bananas, but I also have pretty strong gag reflexes that do not like mushy bananas. I usually eat them pretty quickly, but I was struck with a stomach bug two weeks ago and bananas have been the last thing I've wanted to eat since then. So today, seeing that I needed to get rid of my extra ripe bananas, I decided to be resourceful and make some of my Mimi's amazing banana bread! I normally only eat this yummy treat once a year. Mimi always makes banana bread on Christmas eve so that we will have breakfast on Christmas morning. It's one of my favorite family traditions! Even though it isn't Christmas, I thought it would be a great snack to bake and freeze to have for breakfast throughout the summer. I love my Mimi's recipe so much that I thought I would share it with you!

Mimi's Hawaiian Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups of all purpose flour

2 cups of sugar

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of salt

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts(optional

3 eggs beaten

2 1/2 cups of mashed ripe bananas

1 8oz. Can crushed pineapples drained

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 1/2 cups of oil

Directions:


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nuts if you choose) in a bowl. Mix together.

**You really can just use a spoon to stir these ingredients, but I love to have any excuse to use my big Kitchen Aid Mixer!

3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs. Then, add other wet ingredients (mashed bananas, drained pineapple, vanilla, and oil). Mix together.

4. Pour wet ingredient mixture into dry ingredient bowl and stir just until moist.

5. Spray two 9x5x3 loaf pans with cooking spray. Then, sprinkle pans with flour and shake to cover. (I could not find my loaf pans, so I just used a deep cake pan!)

6. Pour batter into pans. Sprinkle tops with a little cinnamon. This isn't part of the original recipe, but I LOVE cinnamon, so I had to add a little extra :)

7. Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

8. Cool on baking rack for 20 minutes before removing from pans. Remove from pans and cool completely on baking racks. Since I couldn't find my loaf pans, I am going to cut my big loaf into smaller loaves and freeze to have this summer!

Then, it's time to enjoy!

If you plan to freeze your bread, simply wrap the bread in foil and pop into the freezer!