Buttermilk Banana Bread

I’ve mentioned my friend Meghan & her fantastic cooking skills on the blog quite a few times. Today I’m thrilled to have her guest posting with a delicious recipe for a family favorite: banana bread. Enjoy!

 

Buttermilk Banana Bread 

I recently bought a bunch of bananas that started to get brown a lot faster than I anticipated, so it was pure luck that I noticed a recipe for banana bread on the Bartlett’s Farm Facebook page. Bartlett’s is a family farm on Nantucket with a market that sells some of the most delicious produce I have ever tasted.  There is nothing like their corn on the cob in the summertime…

 

Anyway, back to the reality of winter and my browning bananas. Since I had nearly all of the ingredients for the recipe, I figured I’d give it a try.  I typically don’t bake with this much sugar or buttermilk, so I can’t promise that this is healthy.

 

It turned out to be really flavorful and it isn’t that sweet either. The cinnamon and nutmeg flavors make it more spicy than other banana bread that only uses vanilla.

 

Here’s the finished product.

 

Below is the recipe, via Bartlett’s Facebook page. I’ve actually made this twice now and prefer the bread without chocolate chips (which says a lot, because I like to find any excuse to add chocolate to a recipe!).

 

Buttermilk Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup buttermilk

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup mashed bananas

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ¾ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Up to 1 cup total chopped nuts, chocolate chips, cranberries

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350

Spray one 9 x 5 loaf pan

Whisk together Eggs, Buttermilk, Oil, Bananas

Combine all dry ingredients and stir into liquid ingredients. Pour into prepared pan, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Place foil over the top of the pan after you’ve cooked for about an hour if you notice the top is getting too brown.

 

 

Just a quick note on ingredients…I’ve found that using a better quality cinnamon can actually make a huge difference when baking. I got hooked on The Spice House in Chicago when I lived down the street, as I was frequently lured in by the aroma of all of their spices.  I love making baked apples, so I decided to try out a few different cinnamons.

 

My favorite for baking is their Chinese Cassia Cinnamon and I typically use their Indonesian Cinnamon for cooking. They sell bags like the one below for about $4 and they last for months!

~ Meghan