Ultimate Banana Nut Bread

Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease and flour a loaf pan. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, vanilla powder*, and walnuts in a large bowl and set aside. In another bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Ass egg and mashed bananas and mix well. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. The resulting batter will be very wet and fairly thick. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 55-65 minutes until the top is dark golden brown. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Recipe Notes: Bananas: Don't worry about an exact measurement on the bananas. If it's a bit more or less than 2-1/2 cups it's fine. I usually just grab 4-6 bananas, depending on the size, and just go with that without measuring once they're mashed. The really important part is just being sure they are very, very over-ripe and soft so they will mash easily! Vanilla Powder: I love using vanilla powder in my recipes, but if you don't have any you can substitute vanilla extract. To use vanilla extract in this recipe, add 1 teaspoon to the banana mixture before combining the wet and dry ingredients. Eggs: This recipe can also be made with just one egg. When I only have one egg I also add 1/4 cup vegetable oil to the wet ingredients. Crust: The crust will get very dark as this bakes and the top will crack a bit. This is what you want, so don't worry that you are over-baking the bread! The crust will have a slight crispness to it once the loaf cools. If you don't want the crust to be slightly crisp, wait for the loaf to cool till it's just barely warm. Then wrap the loaf tightly in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight. The crust will be softened in the morning when you unwrap the bread.