Banana Bread

I *really* wish I had more pictures of this, maybe I'll make it again before I post this, but I was making it with all three kids. When my husband was away. And our teenage babysitter was sick. So here's me:



This is a HUGE benefit of baking versus cooking, you can do it with a baby in a Baby Bjorn Carrier  I wouldn't cook on a stove like this, but measuring, mixing, pouring? Sure.



Loose interpretation of Banana Bread from Nigella Lawson in Domestic Goddess.
Ingredients:

scant 1/2 cup raisins (she recommends golden, I use regular, sometimes even pouring them out
6 tablespoons rum (optional, I don't do it with kids)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, *melted*
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
4 small, very ripe bananas (you can microwave them if they aren't ready yet)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (I use whole - wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Makes either one 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, 18 muffins (or "cupcakes"), or 30 mini-muffins

Put the raisins and rum in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and cover. Let the raisins plump up and absorb most of the liquid. When I do this, it is amazing! With kids, and a quick turn-around time, I just skip this step entirely.

Nigella, I make her recipes enough to feel free calling her that, recommends using golden raisins. I rarely have these, so I use regular raisins. Sometimes I even find myself emptying out snack size boxes!

Preheat oven to 325.

Mash bananas. This is my son's favorite part:)

In a large bowl or mixer, mix the melted butter and sugar. Add the 2 eggs, mix. Add the vanilla, bananas and raisins.

In a separate bowl (if you feel like it, you can just add it to the mixer if you want to save a bowl) mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix everything together, but don't overmix. Which means about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

If you are making a loaf, pout batter into greased loaf pan, I use the Pam Spray for Baking, ince it's one step and I don't have to butter and flour.

If making muffins, or "cupcakes" as my kids call them, use an ice cream scoop to scoop the batter evenly into the cups. Again, I wish I had a picture, but believe me, it's so much easier than pouring, every muffin is the same size, and there is very little mess.

Bake for 1 hour if in a loaf, 20 minutes for muffins, and 8-10 minutes for mini-muffins.

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