Can you smell that? It's cream cheese banana nut bread in the oven.

After I made sweet and sour chicken for dinner the other night. I also made banana nut bread for dessert. In fact the recipe made two loaves. I haven't made it in a very long time!!! I think I made once when I was a freshman in high school.

Mom helped me make it and then we took it to some shut ins from church. I remember walking in her house and handing her the loaf of bread. She looked at me and said, "Did you make this? It smells nice!" It was at that moment that I realized the power of food and the act of kindness to people who needed visitors while not being able to get out every day like we do.

I got the recipe from here. It looks like she got it from Southern Living.

There's no greater smell than that of bread, cookies, or a good pie baking in the oven.

When this one was cooking, I could smell it in the living room and I just wanted to go to the oven and just pull a piece out and start eating it.

This is a fool proof recipe. If you do what it says, you can't go wrong. This will definitely be my go to recipe for banana nut bread. The cream cheese really helps add a little extra oomph!!

*I got the pictures from her site as well. The only picture I had was a downward angle of them sitting on the island. These were much prettier.

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread - Southern Living

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

***Makes 2 loaves***

3/4 c. butter, softened
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 c. sugar
2 large eggs
3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 medium bananas)
1 cup roughly chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanillla. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x4 inch loafpans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and sides pull away from pan, shielding with aluminum foil last 15 minutes to prevent browning, if necessary.

(I found that after one hour, my banana bread wasn't completely cooked through.  I ended up baking it for an extra 10-15 minutes.)

Cool bread in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool 30 minutes on wire racks before slicing.

Source: Southern Living magazine

*I like to dump my cakes/ breads out immediately after cooking. Every time I let them sit for a few minutes and then try to dump them out, they stick to the pan and never just fall out like they should.