What a great way to start your day, freshly baked banana bread! But it wasn't always so great for me. Over the years I tried dozens of recipes, several different pans, and multiple baking times and temperatures, and always ended up with banana bread that was gooey in the middle. I finally cracked the code on getting evenly baked loaves every time...the secret ingredient is yogurt.

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup soft, unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 and 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt

Optional Ingredients:

1/2 cups chopped nuts, chocolate chips, etc

Equipment Needed:

9x5 inch baking pan, or mini-loaf pans

While your oven preheats to 350 degrees, mash together butter and bananas in a large bowl. I typically use a fork for this, but today I used this tool that I bought last week, planning to use it when mixing frozen butter and flour to make scones.

Add vanilla, eggs, and yogurt and stir until there is no yellow.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in another bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula until just combined.

At this point, you may add nuts, chips or other mix-ins. Then, pour your batter into your 9x5 baking pan or mini-loaf pans.

These mini-loaves will bake for 25 minutes, while a 9x5 loaf pan should be baked for 55-60 minutes.

Use a toothpick to check for doneness (toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean) and cool on a rack for 5 minutes (15 minutes for a 9x5 pan) before removing loaves from pan.

Enjoy!