THE Banana Nut Bread

Daddy has been begging for me to make some homemade banana nut bread ever since we bought bananas earlier this week. He intentionally let the bananas sit and slowly turn spotty in an effort to encourage me. So, finally, today I gave in and made some. This is a really good recipe that I got from Food Network about a year ago, and it's our favorite one to use. I've tweaked it a few times to include chocolate chips, and that turns out wonderful, as well. Also, these can very easily be made into muffins. Just reduced the time that you cook them to about 20-25 minutes.

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup melted butter, cooled to room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

2 eggs

2 cups self-rising flour

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven at 350 degrees, and spray a tube pan with cooking oil. In your electric mixer or with a handheld mixer, whip together two of the bananas and the sugar for about 3 or 4 minutes. You'll want a light and fluffy mixture. Mash together the remaining two bananas in a small bowl, making sure to leave a few little chunks for some texture.

2. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla flavoring in with the whipped banana mixture. Mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Add all of the flour and mix until just incorporated. Otherwise you won't like this recipe very much :)

3. Using a spatula, mix in the pecans and mashed bananas. Pour into the greased pan and cook for 45 minutes.

My family LOVES this recipe, and we have used it numerous times. I even gave a speech last semester on how to make this bread. My advice: try it. You will love it :)