Ever faced a situation where the bananas have turned black and is on the verge of being over ripe. Sounds familiar?

I don’t like to eat over ripe (lightly blackened) bananas. And if you are like me, then don’t worry anymore. Now you never have to throw out such bananas. You can make this perfect cranberry banana bread. Using this recipe you can turn the yucky bananas into a delicious bread.

Since very ripe bananas are sweet on their own, you can always adjust the sugar quantity in the recipe. This recipe has slightly less sugar but you can increase (or reduce) it further based on your preference.

Two important things to know before you jump to the recipe is –

• The eggs and butter should be at room temperature. If these two are at room temperature, then it helps trap air. And that air expands in the oven while baking, resulting in fluffy baked products. So keep your eggs and butter ready beforehand.
• It takes an hour to bake the bread, so be prepared to have that much time.

In this recipe I am using dried cranberries to get a slight tangy flavor to balance the sweetness of the banana. But you can use raisins as well.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Baking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1. 4 medium or 3 large ripe bananas
2. 1/2 cup or 8 tbsp room temperature butter
3. 2/3 cup sugar
4. 2 room temperature eggs
5. 1 1/2 cups flour
6. 1 tsp baking soda
7. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8. 1/2 tsp salt
9. 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit. Grease and flour the bread loaf pan. 
2. Make sure your eggs and butter are at room temperature. See the “important” section above.
3. Mash up the bananas with a fork or hand in a bowl. You need not make it too mushy.
4. In a mixing bowl, cream together the 2/3rd cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter using a hand or stand mixer on medium speed.
5. Add the mashed bananas and 2 eggs (one at a time) into the sugar and butter mixture. Mix them using the mixer till they are well blended.
6. For the dry mix, sift the 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt and lightly whisk them so that it mixes well.
7. Then slowly add the dry mix to the batter and mix them well so that it all gets blended.
8. After that add ½ tsp vanilla extract and ½ cup dried cranberries. Give it a final mix.
9. Pour the batter in the prepared tin and bake for 50-55 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean.
10. Once taken out of the oven, let the banana bread cool down in the loaf pan for 10 minutes and then transfer it to a wire rack to cool it down further.