I have never like banana bread and then I found this recipe. My friends and coworkers call it The Best Banana Bread Ever. I gave this recipe to my nephew who's a fireman and got a thank you note from the firehouse!
The trick to great banana bread is to let the bananas get to the stage where you think they need to be thrown out: almost to mush. Seriously, they need to be really, really over ripe.
Don't over beat the mixture at any stage or the bread will be dry and overflow the pan.
Cream Cheese Banana Bread
3/4 cup butter softened, (1) 8 oz. package of cream cheese softened, 2 cups sugar, 2 large eggs, 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 tea. baking powder, 1/2 tea. baking soda, 1/2 tea. salt, 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas, 1 cup chopped nuts, 1/2 tea. vanilla. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour 2 bread pans or bundt pan.
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, just until blended. Stir together flour, soda and salt and add gradually to butter mixture, beating at a low speed just until blended. Stir in bananas, nuts and vanilla. Spoon into pans and for an hour or until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes and then turn out to let cool.
If you want to make muffins the time for baking will be 25 minutes.
Hope you enjoy!