Jake's Awesome Banana Bread

For Christmas last year I had a really difficult time finding gifts for my thirteen year old son, Jake. He's at the age where he's too old for most traditional toys and I'm not into gifting cash so unless I want to give him a bunch of video games, pickings are slim.
One chilly afternoon I ducked into my neighborhood bookstore to kill some time. After I found a few little stocking stuffers and a book for myself, I decided to wander over to the kids section to see if I could find anything interesting for Jake. That's when I found this book, Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat. After flipping through the pages, I knew this would be perfect for him! It's written by two teenagers (both girls) and all the recipes are food that kids would actually want to eat. The recipes are simple, they don't have a lot of ingredients, and are written in a way a teenager can understand. Best of all there are photographs of every recipe.

This banana bread recipes was the first one he wanted to try. He made it without any help from me -- I was impressed by his confidence! I have to admit, I didn't expect it to be all that but I can honestly say that it was very, very good. I loved it! It wasn't fancy or fussy, it was just everything banana bread is supposed to be - moist, lots of sincere banana flavor, and just a little crust along the edges to give it a little texture. And, as an added bonus, while it's baking it makes the entire house smell great wonderful!

Jake's Awesome Banana Bread
Yield: 10 or so slices, depending on how thick you slice the bread<\ adapted from Teen Cookbook

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
3 medium very ripe bananas, slightly mashed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup walnuts (optional - Jake doesn't use them in his bread)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly butter or spray the bottom and sides of a 9-inch loaf pan.

Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Add the eggs and mix for 1 minute. Add the bananas and mix for 1 minute. The batter will be lumpy, but the pieces of banana should all be 1/2 inch or smaller.

Add the baking soda and salt and mix on low speed for 1 minute. Add the flour and mix on low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally until all the flour is incorporated. Stir in the walnuts if you decide to use them.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Remove the bread from the pan and place it on a cooling rack. (If you let the bread cool in the pan, the bottom will get soggy.)