Holiday baking and candy making

Well it's that time of year again! I am getting ready to start baking and making candy for the holidays. I love to give homemade gifts when I can. The last 5 years or so I have made candy for family and friends. This year I'm making divinity, fudge with and without pecans, pralines, and peppermint bark. For school I'm making banana bread and hot chocolate mix. I've been saving my old bananas in the freezer for awhile so I'll be able to make quite a few loaves. A friend on my parenting board gave me a really great recipe that uses lots of chunky banana which makes a very moist bread. I have recipes for all of these things and will get them posted this week in case anyone wants them!

BANANA BANANA BREAD

2 cups all-purpose flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas**

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan***. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir until just moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick into center of the loaf come out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack.

*I use 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour. Also for higher altitude I add about 1/4 cup extra flour.
**I use a potato masher and leave it in chunks.
***I am making mini loaves but am not sure of the cooking time or how many it will make. I'll update when I make them.

Remember if you want to print a recipe, make sure to copy and paste it to a blank page (Word Pad or Notebook) or you will print out my whole blog :-)