Yesterday I teased you with tea and banana bread.

Oh my!  It is The BEST banana bread.

Maybe the yummiest ever!!

You couldn’t believe that I would withhold the recipe until today.

I hope we’re still friends! [grin]

Just look at it sitting on the plate with that creamy pat of butter.

Mouth-watering.  Extraordinary.  Moist.  Flavorful.  Delicious.  Banana Bread.

I know you want to reach into your screen and pick up a slice.

This banana bread is the wonderful balance of light and hearty.

Delicate for a ladies’ tea and yet filling for your lunch with cheese and apple slices.

Do you have some pretty dishes that you never use?

Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee or cocoa in a pretty cup or mug and place your sumptuous slice of banana bread on your pretty plate.

It’s a tea party for one.

Would that not make your morning breakfast or afternoon tea extraordinary?

I’m always saying that it is the little things that make our lives more beautiful.

Sure you can grab a napkin and eat your slice of heaven standing up.

But, it only takes a few more minutes to place it on your prettiest plate and sit down and breathe while you savor your slice and your tea.

After all…“Why be ordinary when you can be extraordinary.”

The Best Banana Bread Ever – the recipe

Ingredients

• 2 Fresh Pastured Eggs Beaten
• 1/2 Cup Melted Butter
• 1 Cup Sugar or Organic Sucanat (I use less — 1/2 or 3/4 Cup often)
• 1/2 teaspoon Organic Vanilla Extract
• 4 Ripe Organic Bananas
• 1 1/2 Cups Organic All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt

Method

• Preheat over to 350 degrees.
• Butter the inside of a loaf pan.
• Slice the four bananas into a separate bowl and use a pastry blender to smash them well.
• In a separate bowl mix the flour, soda, and salt together well, and set aside.
• Melt butter in small sauce pan on low.
• Using a large bowl and electric mixer, beat the eggs.
• Once the eggs are beaten, place the beater(s) back into the egg mixture, and on low, slowly add the melted butter and blend  in the butter, vanilla, and sugar.
• Turn the mixer up to medium high for a few seconds and then turn back down to low and add in the smashed bananas.
• Slowly pour the flour into the wet mixture while continuing to mix on low.  Mix until everything is wet and well incorporated.  Do not over mix.
• Using your scraper, pour the mixture into your buttered loaf pan.
• Place the filled loaf pan in the oven for 50 minutes.  Feel free to check it a minute or two early if your oven runs warm.  If your bananas are quite large, it may take another five minutes or so.  It’s done when a toothpick inserted in the crack in the top comes out clean.
• Invert on to a wire rack. Turn it on its side to cool.
• Slice the best banana bread ever…and Enjoy!

Tips:  

If you like you may add:

• a half bag of chocolate chips.  Gently incorporate them after everything else has been mixed in.
• 1/2 Cup of walnuts or pecans.  Mix as above.
• reduce your sugar up to half if you don’t have a sweet tooth.

My organic market has ‘banana bread’ bananas.  They are 50 cents a pound rather than the usual $1.19.  We only buy what we can eat at the regular price and pop over there for BB bananas.  That’s planned savings!

You might think this is really silly.  But I had an ‘ah ha’ experience the other day and thought I would share it with you.  When a recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of something you can use your 3/4  cup measuring cup twice, rather than using two different measuring cups.  Please tell me I’m not the only person to finally think of this.  [sheepish grin]

I use Organic Sucanat because it is Fair Trade and much lower on the glycemic index and contains beneficial minerals which help balance blood sugar.  You may notice that the bread is more richly colored.  That is because Sucanat is made from the whole sugar cane and what you see is the molasses coloring the bread.  I think it also makes for a richer flavor.  And yes… it does cost more.  I think good health is worth it.

Pastured Eggs.  What?  If you can purchase eggs from a farmer, a roadside stand, a neighbor…you are getting eggs from a chicken that roams and eats bugs and gets sunshine.  The nutritional benefits and the flavor make those eggs a zillion times better than those stressed out snipped beak birds who never see the light of day…and I am only slightly eggagerating.  So when you drive by the place with the sign for brown, or blue or green…stop and buy an armload.

Disclosure:  The ingredient links above are products I use and were added for your convenience.  I am an Amazon Affiliate and will receive a small percentage from your purchase of these items and any others that you add to your shopping cart through these links.  Thank you so much. 

And here’s a graphic to pin….

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Diane

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