Banana Bread

Karis has really been into helping me in the kitchen. Whenever I am baking something or cooking up dinner she is right by my side asking to help. I love this! I am actually doing a lot more baking lately, just so we can do it together! With the past few days feeling more like fall than summer and a few too ripe bananas on the counter, I thought banana bread would be perfect for today's baking project.
I wasn't sure how she would do on this one because she hates bananas, the smell can actually make her gag. We avoided that by letting Jesse do the mashing.

Here's my favorite recipe, that I have perfected over time, found in a Mennonite cookbook we got for our wedding.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup (or less) brown sugar
2 eggs
2 large bananas, mashed
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

(I started using whole wheat white flour by King Arthur, it isn't as heavy tasting as straight whole wheat)
1/2 cup of yogurt or buttermilk

(I usually use plain yogurt but didn't have any today. Instead, I used my new fav BaNilla yogurt by Stonyfield Farms. I thought I couldn't go wrong with banana yogurt in banana bread!)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of nuts or chocolate chips (optional)

1. Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Stir in mashed bananas.
2. Mix all dry ingredients and add to banana mixture, alternating with yogurt. Add vanilla. Fold in optional nuts or chocolate chips. Put in greased loaf pan.
3. Bake at 350 for 50 mins or until tester comes out clean.