Bananananana bread

Raise your hand if you like banana bread. I know that you all just raised your hand. some of you may have even raised both. This was one of the winners from last week (it was tied with orange chicken) and this banana bread is doubly awesome because it has delicious cinnamon swirls in it! There's really only supposed to be one line of cinnamon, but I did two because that's how I roll. It's a super easy recipe that I stumbled on at sandwichhoss. It does take a while to bake, but that's ok cause you can do other things and your kitchen will smell amazing while you wait.

Here's how to do it!

3-4 over ripe bananas

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg beaten

1 tsp vanilla (I did slightly more because, again, that's how I roll)

dash of salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

for the swirl

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350F then butter and flour a bread pan. (preferably 9x5) And if you don't know how to do that, here's how: spread butter allllll over everywhere. Then throw a handful of flour into the bottom of the pan and tap it on the counter. When you have a nice layer on the bottom, tap all the four sides against the counter one by one until the flour is thoroughly coating the inside. See? Easy!

In a big bowl, mash up the bananas. I used a potato masher cause I like to be thorough and it's incredibly fun.

Then add the sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla and stir it up. Then sprinkle the baking soda and salt on top and stir it up again. Slowly stir in the flour. Don't over mix it, just stop when it's all combined.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.

Now it's layering time! Put one third of the banana mix in the bread pan. Then put about 1/3-1/2 of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Don't be shy! Lay it on there! Then repeat until all the banana mixture is gone and the last layer of cinnamon-sugar is on top. Banana-sugar-banana-sugar-banana-sugar. Got it? Good.

Put it in the oven for 50-60 minutes but keep an eye on it. Mine puffed up more than expected and part of one side fell off.

But that's ok cause it still tastes good! Let it cool in the pan for a while and then run a knife around the edges of a pan so the bread doesn't stick. Then flip it out onto a rack to finish cooling. I let it cool for about an hour because I didn't want it to fall apart when I cut it, but if you're impatient, you can cut it sooner than that.

Look at that. See those swirls? That dark stuff there is all caramelized cinnamon sugary goodness.

XOXO

Natalie