Banana Cream Cheese Bread

Recently, I took my boys to a new coffee shop with my mother-in-law. I bought them a piece of banana bread and my younger one told me he "could eat this everyday". I realized that it had been so long since I'd made banana bread, that he couldn't even remember it!

The below recipe is one of my favorites. The addition of cream cheese makes the bread lighter in color than most banana breads...almost cake like.  After it was made, it was gone in less than 24 hours!

Ha, so I totally left out the vanilla and walnuts in the above photo. But, you get the idea. Let's not be too judge-y on how overripe those bananas got.

You'll Need:
- 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
- 1 c. sugar
- 1/4 c. butter
- 2 super ripe bananas

- 1 teaspoon vanilla (I like to use the clear kind to keep the cake lighter in color, but that's total pickiness on my part)
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/4 c. flour
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 c. chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Here's a little trick I use to mash my bananas. (And to totally prevent dirtying another dish. . .or potato masher). I mash it up in its peel. The peel still comes right off and the bananas can go straight into their spot in the recipe. Geez...someone needs to work on those nails before photographing her hands. That's some scariness right there, y'all. 

Combine cream cheese, sugar, butter, vanilla, banana and eggs, mixing until well blended. I do like to beat up my eggs with a fork before adding them to recipes...just to make sure the yolk gets broken up. The water has nothing to do with the recipe. I'm sure someone set it there and then walked off...does this happen at your house, too?

Combine your dry ingredients (except the nuts) separately. And I'm one that just dumps it all in there...I don't slowly add the dry stuff. If the method's good enough for Paula Deen (she totally advocates this when she bakes), then it's good enough for me. And then I tent my towel over my mixer to prevent a flour explosion when I crank on the mixer. 

Just make sure to keep your towel away from your paddle while it's spinning....that would be baaaad. 

After everything is just barely mixed (don't over mix...would cause some very tough bread), fold in your nuts with a spoon (or if you're lazy like me, just turn the mixer on the absolutely lowest speed and let it go around a couple of times...but not too many). 

Pour your batter into a prepared loaf pan...I use the spray with flour in it, but totally go with what you like on pan preparation. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan to cool longer on a rack.

I love that it cracks on top...just adds to the simpleness of this recipe (I know, I know, simple-shmimple...it has cream cheese for crying out loud). But, I still think she's a thing of beauty.

 Y'all, don't be like me. I'm so anxious to taste things that I cut them when they're hot and they're not nearly in nice neat slices like they would've been had I let it cool for 30 minutes or so. Tsk, tsk.

But...there you have it! Love this for breakfast (or anytime really).

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