Banana Blueberry Bread

 

Well, I now know that bananas cannot be too ripe to use them for baking. (Google was right. I checked before I tried.) The ones on my counter looked like they were headed for the trash can. But I had a little spare time and thought I'd see if I could salvage them. I also had the last of a box of blueberries that needed to be used.

So I tweaked my long-standing banana bread recipe. Daddy-O doesn't eat nuts. (He likes the nuts. The nuts don't like him anymore.) Plain banana bread is good, but it's nice to jazz it up a little. This was delicious.

Just as I stirred the berries into the batter, I remembered that I should have dredged them first. All that means is to toss them in a little flour to coat them. That would have kept them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf.  But then...I could just call this "Berries On The Bottom" bread!

BANANA BLUEBERRY BREAD

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self-rising flour
3 ripe large bananas, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Alternately add flour and bananas (start and end with the flour.) Stir in vanilla. Gently fold in blueberries. Pour into greased 9-inch loaf pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from pan and cool on a rack. Wrap in foil and let the loaf "ripen" for a day or two before slicing. (It really gets better if you wait.)

This can also be baked in three 5-inch baking pans, to make small gifts. Reduce baking time to about 45-50 minutes. Banana bread also freezes beautifully.


One of the joys of banana bread is that you can make it a few days before you need it. You should make it a few days ahead. I baked this on a slower day, and then it was ready to take to the lake. We enjoyed it for breakfast with coffee. And it also made a good snack and then it was dessert.