Banana Nut Bread

Do you ever have those impulsive domestic moments at 9:00 p.m.?  I do, not often, but when the mood strikes there's nothing holding me back.  After being cooped up in the house for three days in a row after our "devastating" ice storm in Dallas, I found myself pushing my baking boundaries.  I had to use up my brown bananas and decided to bake banana bread.

I learned quickly that four brown bananas do not equal 2.5 cups of mashed bananas.  Time to improvise.  That's when the inner Paula Dean cried out "SOUR CREAM."  What came out of my oven 65 minutes later was simply amazing:

RECIPE:

2 cups flour (I used organic unbleached)
1 tspn baking soda
1/4 tspn salt
4 medium overly ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/2 cup of honey (replaced 3/4 cup brown sugar my original recipe called for)
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup sour cream

Optional:
Nuts
chocolate chips
raisins/craisins

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a loaf pan
2.  In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
3.  In a separate bowl, cream together butter and honey (or brown sugar).  Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
4.  Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten.
5.  Pour batter into loaf pan.  (I put slivered almonds on the top of the batter and very gently patted them down)
6.  Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

The banana bread turned out wonderfully!  The bread is not overly sweet, is incredibly moist, and my kids continually asked if I could make it again tomorrow.  Definitely a big hit in our house!