B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Even after all these years, every time I write the word “bananas” on my shopping list I hear Gwen Stefani singing in the back of my head. Anyway, I digress.

Two of my favorite ingredients to bake with are bananas and honey so when I saw a recipe in Oprah’s Cookbook for Banana Pecan Honey Bread I knew I had to try it. 

This is hands down the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever tried; it’s dense, moist, and the honey is just sweet enough to cut through the acidity of my very large cup of French Roast coffee in the morning. Yum! 

1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 ripe bananas , mashed (1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 stick butter , softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" x 5" loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper. Sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; set aside. In a small bowl, combine bananas, milk, honey, and vanilla. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Reduce speed to low and alternately add flour mixture and banana mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beat just until blended. In a small bowl, combine nuts with remaining one tablespoon flour and mix well; add to batter. Pour into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes.

Run a knife around inside rim of pan to remove bread, peel off paper from bottom, and cool completely on a wire rack.