I’m calling this bANNAna bread for my sister Anna. She requested this recipe and helped me make it as well! So this one is for my Anna(On-A) Banana! We had fun whipping this up together and it was a breeze to make. We were visiting my grandma and made it in her kitchen- hence the scenery change and the appearance of a stand mixer lol. We made it in a loaf pan, but you can also make it in muffin tins if you prefer single serve pieces. To go along with the bread, we made  Ina Garten’s cream cheese frosting.In hind sight we made WAYYYY too much frosting so definitely pare down the frosting unless you’re baking for a large crowd. Ina’s recipe yields enough frosting for about 20 cupcakes.. Oops..

Banana Bread Ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour

⅔ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 ripe mashed bananas

⅓ cup of melted butter

*optional: ½ cup chocolate chips*

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

16 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

1 ½ sticks of butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

3 cups powdered sugar

Let’s get mashing!

-Preheat oven to 375

– Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon

– In a separate bowl whisk egg, bananas, melted butter, and vanilla until well blended

– Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir until just moistened (we did ours in thirds)

– If you’re adding chocolate chips, now is the time.We opted for no chips this time around. Otherwise add batter to your lined tin.

– Bake 20 minutes in a lined tin. Cool on a wire rack, and top with frosting if desired.

**Oh my god.. I don’t have a final baked photo- forgive me!**

To make the frosting:

-We used an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, you could probably do without- but it definitely makes life easier.

-Put all ingredients in the bowl and mix until smooth.

-Boom. Ina is a bit more elegant in her description, but you know we all can’t be the Queen of Food Network.. But we sure can try! 🙂

It just occured to me that I don’t have any pictures of the final product.. I do hope you can forgive me and take my word for it that it’s delicious! 🙂 This recipe can easily be split into mini loaf pans and gifted to friends and neighbors during the holiday season! OR if you really like them, you can give them a big pan of it!

I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe! What kinds of foods remind you of family members?