Cooking Time - Banana Bread

      People often tell me that I make very good banana bread. I mean, really good banana bread. It's good enough that if ever I hear anything about it at all, it's in the gasps of orgasmic pleasure that people emit between bites. This strikes me as both a wonderful thing and a little dirty. I just never know quite how to react when someone starts to moan lowly while eating my bread. (Bread not a euphemism, naturally.) I figured that it was my solemn duty to the world to give unto you, world, the recipe for this lovely bit of flour and such. 

 Behold!

 PERFECT BANANA BREAD

So, just where does one begin? With love, of course! Love and these ingredients...

• 1/2 cup butter
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 11/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 3 mashed bananas
  
• 1 tsp vanilla
  
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts, whatever)
  

Alright, so get your oven heated to 350 to start with. You want to get your dry goods mixed in its own bowl first. That means the flour, salt and baking powder. Sugar doesn't count as a dry good in recipes, since it dissolves easily in water. No, the sugar (both the regular and brown) will go into a separate bowl with the half cup of melted butter. Blend the sugar and butter together with a hand mixer for a minute or so, to give it a little lightness. Then add the eggs and mashed bananas into the sugar mix and beat that for a minute or so. As a note, this bread is greatly improved by using old bananas that are too soft to eat. It'll work either way, but the older bananas will have a sweeter taste and balance the flavor of the bread nicely. Once the bananas and eggs are mixed in, go ahead and add the vanilla and nuts (finely chopped) into the mix as well. Give that all a good stir, and then add the dry ingredients from the separate bowl into the sugar mix and bring it all together thoroughly.

Once the batter is ready, go ahead and put it into a loaf pan for the oven. The best way to bake it is to line the loaf pan with aluminum foil and cover the foil with non-stick spray. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and trace a little line in the middle of the loaf with a knife, this will put the inevitable split it develops as it bakes in the middle, where it'll look a lot nicer. The baking will take about 60 minutes, but be sure to check your banana bread with a toothpick before taking it out of the oven. Sometimes it'll take another 10 minutes to fully cook in the middle. Puncture the bread with the toothpick and submerge it into the middle of the loaf. If it comes out of the loaf with little to no bread on it, then it is done!

When you take it out of the oven, let it set for about 10 minutes, and then lift it out of the pan by grabbing the sides of the aluminum foil in the loaf pan and lifting. (See? I told you this way worked better!) Once out of the pan, let it set another 10 minutes. By then it should be cool enough to cut. Enjoy every wonder ful bite.