Banana bread--banaanileipä tai oikeastaan banaanikakku

I've been told often that I make really good banana bread.  This is not a Finnish recipe at all, although my friend Marketta, who lives in Finland, did say that she has made this before.  She also complained that it was difficult because she had to convert the recipe from cups to metric.  I've also given this recipe out to at least one of my blog followers in the past, and told them that I use the Better Homes and Gardens recipe, found here.  I truly do have that recipe open while I make the bread, but I do make quite a few adjustments.  

If I get good feedback on this, I've been thinking about doing an American barbecue sauce cook-off here on my blog.  I've heard from so many people that would like to make their own sauce, and all of our friends and relatives from Finland have really enjoyed good barbecue.  I would like to take a lot of sauce recipes from all over the U.S. (they have to be completely from scratch and/or from ingredients that could commonly be found in Finland and most other countries).  If anyone has any suggestions or recipes, I would love comments on this!

So, I hope you you don't mind that I break my own rules just a bit and post my American recipe here...

It all started because they had a big sale on bananas last week, and this is what was left...these are the best kind of bananas to make banana bread from, they are so sweet!

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (175 Celsius).

In a large mixing bowl, I smashed the 5 bananas, and added two eggs, 1 cup (2.5 dl) brown sugar, and a good sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg.  I also added 4 tablespoons (57 grams or 6 dl) of melted butter, the original recipe called for 1/2 cup (114g) of melted butter or oil, but I would never use oil.  I don't think that much butter is necessary, either, if you put a good streusel on top.

In another bowl, mix 2 cups (5 dl) of flour (all purpose made from wheat) with 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

Mix this into the wet ingredients, don't over-mix, it will remain lumpy.

Prepare two loaf pans by greasing and flouring, or do like I did and use the cooking spray that contains flour.  Do not use regular cooking spray!

This is the cookbook I adapted the recipe from--I have a whole collection of these from different years, they are my favorites!

Next, I quickly stirred together some streusel.  I put 4 Tablespoons of flour in a bowl and put in about two tablespoons (about 25g) of butter, which I broke into pea-sized pieces with my fingers.  Then I added about 1/2 cup (25 dl) of brown sugar and a little less than 1/2 cup of whole oatmeal (25 dl).  I worked this with my fingers until the butter was worked in.  This is very dry and crumbly.

I poured the batter in the pans, put the streusel on top, and baked for about 50 minutes.

This is a favorite in our house, the kids love to come home to a fresh loaf after school!