Classic Banana Bread

I've found (as I'm sure many of you have) that my tastes have changed drastically as I've gotten older. I used to despise banana bread and now it's quite the opposite. In fact, sometimes I find that it's what I crave most often, not cookies or cakes but banana bread. I've tried many different recipes lately and I had some issues with all of them, either they were too dry, too moist, not flavorful, etc. I was not completely satisfied until I tried the Classic Banana Bread recipe from Cooking Light. I find it to have the perfect balance of everything I'm looking for in a a quick bread, it's just an added bonus that it is a "lighter" version than most. That is until I starting adding ingredients like chocolate chips, toffee, cinnamon chips or in this case here, mini Reese's peanut butter cups.

Classic Banana Bread

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar 

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)

1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup of optional "add ins" if you'd like, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. At this point, I usually let it sit at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes to thicken up, this helps prevent the add ins from sinking to the bottom. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

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