ATK's Banana Bread

I have to give credit to my friend Brian here, because if he didn't distract me at work with episodes of America's Test Kitchen, I never would have found this fabulous recipe! Personally, I'm not a fan of bananas, but put it in a bread or smoothie and I just might force myself to ingest some. So you can say it was a good distraction, since just a few days earlier, The Husband was forced to eat 4 overly ripe bananas by himself... in one sitting.

BANANA BREAD

350F, 8.5” x 4.5” loaf pan

ingredients: bread

• 5 super ripe banana
• 1 3/4  flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 c toasted walnuts or pecans

: topping

• 1 banana, sliced quarter inch
• 2 tsp sugar

directions

1. Peel and put banana in bowl cover with plastic wrap, puncture some holes, microwave on high for 5 minutes.  This releases liquid.

2. Drain, pour liquid into saucepan and reduce till 1/4 cup about 5 minutes

3. Combine, salt, flour & baking soda, whisk and put aside

4. Take juice & microwave banana and mashed together. Make sure there’s no big piece of banana

5. Mix butter, vanilla, eggs and sugar with the banana mixture

6. Mix in dry ingredients. Don’t over stir flour mixture. Fold in walnuts

7. Spray 8.5 x 4.5” loaf pan with baking spray

8. Pour mixture into loaf pan

9. Slice 6^th Banana into quarter inch slices

10. Line side of pan with overlapping sliced banana (2 long-side, not down the center)
11. Sprinkle 2 tsp of sugar on top, this candies the banana & makes a nice shiney crust

12. 350F oven, middle rack, 1 hour.  Rotate at 30 minutes

13. Let it cool for 15 minutes