The First Recipe I Ever Made By Myself

I am not a person who declares that I am a fabulous chef of any kind. For the first 10 years of my relationship, it was my husband who did the majority of the cooking. I have had to work at cooking like I have had to work at learning how to be a teacher. In the past four or five years, I have really tried to do learn recipes I have found on Pinterest, and keep track of the dishes that I feel I am starting to get better at with practice. Sometimes the things that matter take some time to learn. I do remember one recipe that I would make as a 15-year-old teenager. I would first watch my mom bake this bread, and then I would write down the recipe for my own use. I have kept the same recipe card throughout all of these years. Now, whenever I am feeling a little nostalgic, I will make some banana bread…the Butler way. Feel free to pin the image below that has the ingredients and recipe directions side-by-side. Then, brew a cup of coffee or tea and make banana bread today’s snack for the family.

Check out the recipe card I used when I was younger. Yes, my handwriting still looks very similar. I have always been fond of easy and to the point recipe directions. For example, mix the dry ingredients, and then mix the wet ingredients. I always laugh because not everyone works this way, but apparently my 15-year-old mind wanted to keep things simple.

Step-By-Step Directions

Step 1: Assemble your ingredients! Preheat the oven to 350.

Grab everything you need! I feel like I don’t use a ton of baking soda, so I always grab a new box when I make banana bread. The new box heads to the fridge when I am done to absorb any extra smells. The recipe calls for a pound of bananas, but a good rule of thumb is to use 3-4 over-ripe bananas. My local grocery store sells ripe bananas, but you could just let some bananas ripen on the counter over a week or so.

Step 2: Mix all of the dry ingredients together.

Flour check, brown sugar check, salt check, baking soda, check! I like to use dark brown sugar, but you can use regular brown sugar for this recipe. You could also substitute out the flour for gluten-free flour if you are looking to modify the recipe for gluten-free banana bread lovers.

Step 3: Add in the wet ingredients.

I like to melt the margarine before I add it into the dry mixture to help with bringing everything together. A bit of advice is to melt the margarine at 20 second intervals in the microwave or cover the dish with a paper towel. I always cause a margarine explosion in the microwave. The bright side of this is that the microwave gets cleaned every time I cook banana bread. I also like to mush the bananas with clean hands when I am adding them into the mixture.

Step 4: Mix everything together.

If you have an electric mixer, go for that. I prefer to hand mash the banana bread because I like the chunks of banana in the bread after it cools. If you are a person who likes to grab a warm slice of bread fresh from the oven, use the mixer. Until the bread cools, it might be a tad mushy with the bigger chunks of banana. You could also add in a little vanilla extract if you like a little sweeter flavor in your banana bread.

Step 5: Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for one hour.

I always test the baked bread with a toothpick before pulling it from the oven. Give it 5-10 more minutes if your toothpick comes up sticky and the bread needs more time to cook. There should be a hard crust on the top of the bread that is cracked open when it is ready to come out of the oven.