Here it is: banana bread so easy a 6 year old can make it, literally.  My daughter Avery loves banana bread and when she showed us a recipe in the back of her Highlights magazine with much excitement, we decided to give it a try.  What a success! Not only is the resulting bread a treat, her face just lights up and she is so proud she made it (mostly) all by herself.  Cooking together is a great way to spend time with your toddler or older children. Not only are you making food, there are so many skills they are learning along the way, such as math, science, reading, healthy food choices.  At the same time you are creating a stronger bond with them. That is a win-win situation if you ask me.

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Ingredients:

  • Spray oil
  • 1/3 cup butter (melted)*
  • 4 ripe bananas
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp real vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

How To:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel bananas, break into large chunks, place in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Use a potato masher to mash up the bananas, leave just a little chunky. Stir in the melted butter. Crack the egg into a small bowl, stir a bit and dump into mixing bowl. Add the sugar, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and flour. Stir until combined. Spray a loaf pan lightly with oil. Pour batter into pan and give a few taps to evenly distribute. Bake in oven for 1 hour.*

*Depending on the age of your children you will need to assist them with melting the butter and putting the loaf in/out of the oven.

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Tips:

It is best to call this recipe banananana bread instead of banana bread because everyone knows things that sound silly taste better  😉  Also, make sure you buy the bananas for this at least a week ahead of time so they are nice and ripe, the outside of the peel should have lots of brown spots. This makes the bread sweeter and the bananas easier for little hands to mash up. Some grocery stores may even have a discount shelf with ripe bananas that are perfect for this.

I would love to know if you give this recipe a try with your kiddos, just leave me a note in the comments.