We’ve all been there. You bought a bundle of bananas at the grocery store, ate two, and left the rest to slowly turn into brown mush on your counter.

Thankfully, those overripe bananas are the best for making banana bread!

You will need:

• 3 overripe bananas, mashed
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar (bump it up to 1 1/2 cups if you like sweets!)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Mash your bananas in a large mixing bowl, then add your eggs, milk, and butter. Beat the mixture together until everything is well incorporated.

In another bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and brown sugar. I cannot stress how important baking soda is here. The first time I tried to make banana bread, I thought I could just skip the baking soda because I never paid attention to science in high school and didn’t realize that’s the leavening agent that makes your bread nice and fluffy. Without it, you will be left with a super dense loaf of … I don’t know what to call it. The texture wasn’t breadlike at all.

Moral of the story: use. baking. soda.

Add your dry ingredients to the banana/egg/butter/milk mixture and mix until it’s well combined.

Line a 9×5 baking pan with parchment paper for easy cleanup, and pour your mixture into the pan. Smooth out the top and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
 This is already good when it’s fresh out the oven, but it will be even better if it sits overnight. So grab a piece to try, and save some to grab in the morning on your way to work!