Perfect Banana Bread

The reason I call this perfect is because it comes out perfectly baked. No soggy middles or overdone tops. No ledges or any of those pesky things you find with common banana bread. The recipe is easy - most ingredients you will have on hand. I just used a bunch of bananas that I let over ripen - kind of forgot about them. I also had quite a few bananas in my freezer that needed to be used. So with a combination of the two, I made a triple batch. I'll freeze some loaves and take a few to the neighbors.

4 large ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter, at room temperature

3 eggs, well beaten

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup buttermilk or regular milk

1/2 chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of two large loaf pans (9x5-inch each). Mash bananas and set aside. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter together. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Alternating with milk, stir in flour mixture in thirds; beginning with flour mixture and ending with milk. Stir in chopped nuts. Spread evenly in the bottom of two prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Then reduce heat to 275 degrees and bake and additional 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.