Banana Bread (Old Vitamix Recipe)

My mom used to have one of the old Vitamix blenders and this is the recipe that came with it and it has been my most favorite banana bread recipe for the past 25+ years!!! Mom used to bake them oddly enough in old baby formula cans so it would make little round loafs. I don't have the coveted cans so I like to make them as little mini muffins. This makes them very easy for my kids to hold onto and adults can just pop them in their mouths. What's really nice about this recipe is that because you add lemon juice it keeps the muffins light in color. Also you can make a lot of them and freeze small batches and when you want a few for breakfast or a snack, just pull a few of them out of the freezer and they thaw in minutes.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins and 48 mini-muffins.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour (plain or wholemeal)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 cup soft margarine or butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sugar

3 ripe bananas

***Note: I often freeze my ripe bananas so I can make this recipe whenever I want, but after thawing them lots of juices will form. You will need to lift the banana pieces out of the juice to use them in the dough otherwise it will be too liquidy. You do not need to freeze your bananas , you can just use any bananas that are starting to brown on the peel.

Method:

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In a blender, add egg, softened butter, milk, sugar and little bit of lemon juice (1/4 tsp will do). Blend on HIGH for 3 minutes.

Add the bananas one by one in the blender and let it run on HIGH until the bananas are well mixed in.

Make a small well in the flour mixture and pour your banana mix in the middle.

Gently mix together until all the dry is incorporated in. (Note: in this picture I have used wholemeal flour so it has a darker look to the dough. Plain flour will be much lighter)

Scoop dough into well greased muffin tins. For a regular muffin pan, the batch will make 12 muffins.

A mini muffin tin will make 48 mini muffins. (This is the dough using plain flour)

Bake 350 F/180 C - 20 minutes for regular sized muffin tin and 10 minutes for mini-muffins.

***Note: I usually just use plain flour in this recipe but I have experimented with wholemeal flour to make them a little bit more healthy. They do taste amazing and have a much hearty texture, but a little different than the plain ones. Don't be afraid to try both!