Banana Bread

What do you do with overly ripe bananas that no one wants to eat?
Put it to use in banana bread, of course! The extra ripeness of bananas sweetens and adds extra moisture. There are plenty of recipes for banana bread, and honestly, most are quite good. It's quite difficult to mess up banana bread, since this is a quick bread recipe and doesn't require resting, proofing, or worrying about adding too much liquids to the dough (well, not as much as traditional breads, anyway). Since I am making this for my family, I wanted to have a healthy version of banana bread, meaning lower fat and slightly less sweet than the type of banana bread I would bring in for my western friends (since they're used to more buttery tasting and sweeter, almost cake like version). So here is my version, which I adapted from Allrecipes and changed it slightly to accommodate the tastes that my family enjoys.

Banana Bread

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup water
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 overly riped bananas
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
splash of vanilla, pinch of salt and cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Mash up bananas, beat in eggs, oil, water, vanilla and sugar
3. sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder
4. Mix together (2) and (3) and stir in the walnuts and raisins.
5. Pour into an 8 by 5 inch loaf pan, and bake for 50-60 minutes until top is brown, cracked, and middle is cooked.
6. Let cool on rack and slice only when cooled.



*note*
for a slightly richer taste, substitute the oil with butter, and dot the top of the bread with butter before baking for a crisper top