Maui Banana Bread

It's Tasty Treats Tuesday!

Before we went to Maui this year, I was on a mission to find a really good banana bread recipe. My requirements for the recipe beyond great flavor was simplicity especially real ingredients that I have on had when I have a plethora of very ripe bananas. Other recipes can be nice but I try not to always have sour cream and such on hand. (You can freeze very ripe mashed bananas too for future banana bread if you can't use them all.)

During all of the reminiscing about our trip, I realized that the banana bread we ate the morning we left for our trip was not this recipe. That was a recipe to use up an excess of sour cream I got on sale with coupons! This is a recipe I discovered around the time we went to Maui but didn't make until after we were back. Unfortunately, I cannot remember where I found it. :( I have made it several times for a few events and for our enjoyment tweaking it each time.

Our favorite way is with the 1/2 butter/ 1/2 coconut oil but it is still delicious with only butter. We haven't used the macadamia nuts in it yet. I'm a no nuts added banana bread fan...although m.nuts would probably be fabulous! When not using stone ground whole wheat as much as possible, I personally only bake with unbleached white flour. This recipe might be okay if you didn't have the unbleached white flour so don't let that deter you from trying this recipe.

Maui Banana Bread

Makes 2 large loaves, 3 regular loaves, or (48 mini-muffins and 6 mini-loaves!) Great recipe to halve or double...that was a LOT of batter the one time I doubled it...oh boy!

*½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (or ¼ lb butter AND ½ cup coconut oil)
*2 cups sugar
*4 large eggs
*6 medium very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (I've always found this number/size is not set in stone...I've used anywhere from 4-8 depending on the size of the bananas...all come out great!)
*2 ½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
*2 teaspoons baking soda
*1 teaspoon salt
*½ cup chopped macadamia nuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease two 9-inch loaf pans. Sometimes I sprinkle a little sugar after buttering the pans. It creates a nice sugar crust that has received many compliments.

2. Combine the butter (or butter/coconut oil) with the sugar in a large bowl. Using electric beaters, beat the mixture until creamy and pale yellow. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the bananas.

3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl. Add to the banana mixture and stir until incorporated. Mix in the nuts if using. Divide the batter between the two (or more) prepared pans and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of one loaf comes out clean. Let each loaf cool in its pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to place on a wire rack. Let cool completely on the wire rack.

If using muffins or mini-muffins, bake according to your other muffin recipe directions but keep an eye on them. I will say that mini-muffins of this recipe are just cruel to the taste buds. You need more of it's great taste!