Classic Banana Bread

January is challenging.  It's time to give up that daily chocolate and puff pastry habit you picked up over the holiday season, yet it is peak season for comfort food.  A typical day starts with frigid dark mornings, 8 hours spent hunched over a desk under florescent light, with a daily high of minus 17 degrees (don't even mention the words 'wind chill factor' - it's just rude).  As if that isn't enough, cue the white knuckle drive home through snow and ice packed roads in the dark.  Ugh.  The thought of going outside again is unbearable.

Some people escape by booking a one-week stay at a resort somewhere south of 34 degrees north - but the inescapable reality (for most of us) is that it isn't a one-way ticket (or not even a return ticket dated post March 31).  So we endure.  I bake. A lot.

This weekend banana bread just felt right.  No whole wheat flour, pumpkin puree, coconut milk or chocolate chips this time. Just pure and simple. The classic.   

Classic Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour*

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

3 bananas, mashed

1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

*substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all purpose, if you like

Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.
Mash bananas in a medium sized bowl.  Beat egg into bananas.  Stir in sugar. 

In a separate medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

Once butter is melted, stir into banana mixture. Stir in vanilla.  Stir in flour mixture.

Pour into a well greased loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees or until cake tester inserted in the thickest part comes out clean.  Serve warm with butter spread on top.