Forever in Wonderland: Cinnamon Banana Bread! (AKA this blog is random)

Wow this blog is ADHD. I’ll leave you to decide whether that’s a direct reflection on its author. No, you know what, I’ll go ahead and clear that up. I just really like a lot of stuff and don’t want to limit this blog to one specific thing. I have no clue if that’s a good idea or not, but it fits my personality and my writing style so I’m just gonna run with it.

So! Today I want to share this super delicious recipe for cinnamon banana bread. I’m really not much of a chef (not yet anyway; a girl can dream). Cooking meat scares me, and pasta just sounds…complicated. BUT I do love to bake. Cookies, cupcakes, any sort of bread or muffin—that I can do. Oh and granola. I’m the Queen of Granola.

Eesh sorry, I’m off topic again. Back to cinnamon banana bread!

I wish I could claim this recipe as my own, but I actually found it on one of my favorite baking blogs--Sally's Baking Addiction--and adjusted it to suit my own weirdo needs. But you should check out her blog; this girl makes some seriously awesome desserts.

Now, I’ve made banana bread before (it’s one of my favorites). I also love cinnamon, so when I stumbled upon this recipe I was already drooling (lovely image, no?).

Okay, so first things first—with banana bread you’ve gotta let your bananas get really nasty looking. The browner and spottier and mushier the better. Appetizing stuff, I know.

After you’ve let your bananas fester you’re going to need some other stuff.

Ingredients:

*2 cups of flour

*3/4teapsoon baking soda

*1/2 teaspoon salt

*1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

*1/2 cup of brown sugar (not packed)

*4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (1/2 stick)—make sure it’s soft and not cold!

*2 large eggs

*3 large mashed up bananas

*1/3 cup vanilla or honey yogurt (I used greek yogurt)

*1 teaspoon vanilla extract

And here’s the kicker. This cinnamon banana bread has a CINNAMON SWIRL through the middle of it!

Swirl:

*1/4 cup sugar

*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

And because the more sugar the better, I’m a big fan of drizzling a glaze over any sort of sweet bread. So for a glaze all you need is:

*1/2 cup powdered sugar (sifted)

*1 tablespoon of heavy cream or half-and-half or plain old milk (and obviously I don't mean old like expired)

Getting all the ingredients is seriously the hardest part of this recipe. It doesn’t get simpler than this (unless you buy some bread at the grocery store—cheater!).

Instructions:

*Preheat oven to 350F. Find a 9x5-inch loaf pan (I had to search for a good ten minutes) and spray with cooking spray.

*Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl (flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon).

*In another large bowl, mix the brown sugar and butter together (I used a mixer) until well blended (45 secs to a minute). Add the eggs one by one, mixing as you go. Stir in the mashed bananas, the yogurt, and the vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients mixture. This is going to some thick batter so don’t overmix it.

*Spoon half of the batter into the loaf pan. Take the cinnamon swirl mixture and coat the batter with it. Pour the rest of the batter on top.

*Put bread in oven for about 45 minutes (mine actually took about an hour but it’s going to depend on your oven). You know it’s done when you stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.

*Cool for 15 minutes (if you can wait that long; I made the mistake of trying to pry it out early so I could stuff my face).

*While bread is cooling (and you’re trying desperately not to eat it), mix the glaze in a bowl by combining the powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle or pour or make glaze art all over the top of the bread.

*DEVOUR IT!

Honestly y’all, this is the best banana bread I’ve ever had. The entire loaf was gone within less than 24 hours (my family ate some of it, I’m not that ravenous). But, should you want to savor it, the bread will last for about a week and a half as long as you keep it in an airtight container.

So impress your friends, satiate your taste buds, feel like an accomplished baker, and MAKE THIS BREAD! And I apologize for all the uppercase I have going on in this post. That’s just how much I like cinnamon banana bread.