Mid-Century Style: Grandma's Banana Bread

I was so excited to notice we had three bananas that were approaching the over-ripe stage!  You see, I need three over-ripe bananas to make my Grandma Velma's Banana Bread!  This is my first and favorite banana bread recipe.  (Yes, mid-century style is coming back.)

We're a banana-eating family, so we don't often have bananas that get over-ripe, and when we do it's only one or two.  Here's something I learned: You can just pop a banana, peel and all, into the freezer and save until you have three.  Just take out to thaw a few hours before cooking.

This produces a moist bread which improves with age.  When my son was deployed, I made mini-loaves, froze them to keep their shape before sealing in the Foodsaver to include in his care packages.  They arrived a couple weeks later in good shape.  He made a special request to add chocolate chips.  This version tasted great, but the chips tended to sink and weren't disbursed enough through the bread.

Velma's Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/4 lb (one cube) butter
3 well-mashed bananas
2 eggs
3 tbsp sour milk (use buttermilk or put 1 tsp vinegar in milk and let sit for 30 minutes)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup nuts
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a loaf pan (I use non-stick cooking spray).

Cream together sugar and butter.  Add bananas.  Beat in eggs and milk.  Mix together flour, soda and salt.  Stir in until well mixed.  Add nuts and vanilla.  Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for one hour. 

(Live outside the U.S.?  Recipe conversion suggestions on this post.)