best ever banana bread

Vacation all I ever wanted, vacation had to get away!  That song is stuck in my mind as I write this post.  The kids and I just returned from an amazing week back east.  We visited my mom and stepdad for a few days, and then drove up to NY to see my brother and his family along with my dad and stepmom.  Needless to say, it was wonderful reconnecting with everyone, and I really wish that we were not living on opposite coasts.  In my perfect world, we would all live down the street from one another so that we could pop by each other’s house whenever we wished.  That would be the life!

Coming home from vacation has it’s blessings though.  You get to see friends and family that you missed while you were away, sleep in your own bed, drive your own car, and sometimes your greeted with a smell upon entering the house, a smell that is tells you that you left without cleaning out the fridge properly.  Yah, we’ve all dealt with that.  I came home to a more pleasant surprise, over-ripe bananas. Yaay!  When I see over-ripe bananas the first thing that pops to my mind is banana bread!  So, what did I do the first day back on top of all that laundry?  I made banana bread!  I know, I’m a crazy rebel!   

Hey, I’m not claiming this to be the best banana bread ever. Let’s face it, banana bread is banana bread, plain and simple. Paul McCartney gave this title to the bread and I liked it, as reminded me of something a toddler would say, so I kept it.   This banana bread was super moist, and stayed moist before it was consumed.  I loved that it used some whole grain flours instead of the traditional white flour, and my kids loved it even though there were no chocolate chips hidden in it.  

Best ever banana bread:

• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup ground rice flour
• 1/2 cup cornflour
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Superfine sugar (sometimes called baking sugar) is granulated sugar that has been ground into finer crystals than your regular granulated white sugar. Bakers like it because the smaller crystals cream very easily into butter, this leads to products that have a finer crumb and lighter texture when finished.  You can make your own superfine sugar by by processing regular granulated sugar in the food processor until it is very fine. A minute or so is usually more than enough time to process the sugar, and the newly chopped crystals will work just as well in recipes as store-bought superfine sugar.  I was to lazy to make my own so I just purchased it.