Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Do you save old bananas? I never did until I was at my stepdaughter's house up in Wisconsin years ago and asked her why she had a frozen brown banana sitting there in her freezer. (We have a great relationship, by the way, so she knew this was not a criticism!) She told me she'd always thrown them away, too, until her mother-in-law told her to toss them in the freezer and then use them later for making banana bread. I thaw mine in the microwave for about a minute, and they are a wonderfully mushy consistency that you can mash with a fork. I think they give the banana bread a better flavor than the fresher bananas I had always used. Anyway, I spotted some in my freezer last week, and that's how I ended up making Peanut Butter Banana Bread over the weekend.

I didn't find a recipe I really liked online, so this is a mash-up of several recipes as well as a few tweaks of my own. I think it's a great teatime treat!

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
2 well-ripened bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped peanuts + 1 tablespoon for garnish

Glaze

1/2 -3/4 cup powdered sugar, or amount needed for desired consistency

1 tablespoon chunky peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Using a large mixing bowl and an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs then beat well. Add the peanut butter, bananas, flour, and baking soda and combine well. Fold in the 1/2 cup chopped peanuts, then pour batter into pan.

Bake for about an hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean. Remove from pan and allow loaf to cool on a wire rack. When cool, whisk all glaze ingredients together, drizzle on top of cake, and garnish with reserved tablespoon of chopped peanuts.