BANANA BREAD // A BAKING RECIPE — Samantha James Photography

I love bananas and even more than that, banana bread. My great-grandmother and I used to spend hours and hours at our little cottage in Northern Michigan baking when I visited in the summertime. We would make all sorts of things and to this day I believe that's where my love for baking came from. I am so grateful for those memories.

I'm excited about this post because it brings my love for baking and photography together. Thankfully Rhiannon Bosse also loves to bake so this was a really fun project! She made the bread and styled everything beautifully. The best part? Eating it when we were done! Enjoy these photos capturing the process and save the recipe at the end of this post.

Banana Bread //

1 cup overly ripe mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups enriched all purpose flour
1 cup of granulated sugar

2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup of whole sour cream
1 stick of butter at room temperature
1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup of toasted pecans (or walnuts)
1 handful of toasted nuts (optional)
6 oz of chopped bittersweet chocolate
a dash of salt
a dash of vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a standard sized loaf pan really well with butter or baking spray and set aside. In a small bowl mash together about 3 to 4 overly ripe bananas to get a cups worth of mashed bananas. In a separate medium sized bowl combine your butter, sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer until creamy about 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in your eggs one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl as you go and ensuring the mixture is combined.

Add in the flour and baking soda and mix until combined. Fold in the sour cream, toasted nuts and chopped chocolate by hand making sure not to overly mix everything together. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and top with the handful of toasted nuts. Bake in the preheated oven for an hour, give or take ten extra minutes or until the very middle of the loaf is cooked all the way through. The top of the loaf will get very toasty and brown before the middle is cooked so don’t fear you’re burning the top. Let the loaf cool in the pan before wiggling it out. Enjoy immediately or wrap tightly and enjoy it within a few days for maximum freshness.