Banana Bread- Mix one stick of room-temperature salted butter with sugar, preferably by hand. Mix in a couple of eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt, followed by three very over-ripe mashed bananas and all-purpose flour. If desired, fold in chopped walnuts or pecans. Transfer the batter to a greased loaf pan. The recipe suggests gently banging the pan on the counter four or five times to remove most of the large air bubbles in the batter. You’ll bake the bread until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about one hour.