Mrs. Olson’s Banana Bread with Buttercream Frosting

When my girlfriends and I were visiting Jen Olson in Iowa last fall, we talked a lot about food and recipes. We started to swap some recipes as well. Jen showed me her mom’s banana bread recipe and I quickly asked Jen to email it to me.

This bread is heavenly. It’s like no other banana bread I’ve ever had. It’s much more of a cake than anything.

You can really taste the brown sugar in the recipe – I think that’s what sets it apart from the rest. That, and there is a great amount of bananas added. Pay no mind to the burned quality of the bread……my oven was in poor shape 😦

And the icing…..oh man. This buttercream icing will now be my GO-TO icing for everything from now on. It is fabulous and sweet and creamy. I will probably need to make it its own blog post in the near future.

It’s a very simple bread, that is very people-pleasing. I took some in to share with my co-workers after Hurricane Sandy, and it was eaten immediately.

I am so thrilled that Jen shared her mom’s recipe with me. This will be my only banana bread recipe that I will ever need for life.

Look at this stuff……..sinful!!!!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups brown sugar (you can sub a cup of white for one of brown if you prefer)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla and bananas. Add dry ingredients last.

Pour in loaf pans. Bake at 350 45-50 minutes or until done. (start checking around 40 minutes)

Jen’s mom served this bread with a buttercream frosting recipe that she added just a little bit more milk to make it a creamy spread.

The BEST Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup half & half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions:

Beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar and salt alternately with half & half and vanilla, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.

Stir in corn syrup.

When loaves are fully cooled, spread over top and serve.