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Chai Banana Bread (with buttermilk)

Hate buttermilk? You may prefer this recipe instead!

Ingredients​

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Chai-Style Spice Blend (these can be halved for a more subtle taste, or left out entirely if you prefer plain banana bread!)​

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Directions​

Lower your oven rack so the top of your baking pan will be in the middle of your oven, and preheat it to 180C (350F). Grease only the bottom of your baking pan.
In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, Chai-Style Spice Blend (if using), and salt. Set the bowl aside for now.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. Add your mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Add your flour mixture to the wet banana mixture and stir until it's just moistened through. Add nuts (if using) and stir to blend.
Pour the mix into an 8 x 4 x 2 inch loaf pan (or 2!) and bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

My Notes​

I don't usually have buttermilk in the house, so I add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the 1/2 cup of milk, stir, let it sit for 5 minutes to thicken, and use that instead.
I've used margarine instead of butter for this recipe sometimes, and I didn't notice a difference.

This took an hour in my oven using my 9 x 5 x 3-inch silicone loaf pan but:
If using 3 very ripe bananas (usually I only use 2), this might make a bit too much dough to be contained in 1 silicone loaf pan. 😦 The flexible sides of the baking dish flopped outwards and some of the dough tried to escape. Good thing I put a metal cookie sheet underneath! I had to quickly divide the batter into 2 loaf pans, the second of which I forgot to grease the bottom of. When it came time to remove the banana bread, it was a little more difficult to remove it cleanly from the non-greased pan, but the fact that both baking pans were silicone helped prevent it from getting stuck inside. If using metal baking pans, if you don't grease the bottom, you're gonna have a bad time.

I wrapped the extra banana loaf twice in clingfilm and froze it for about a month, we couldn't taste any difference.

I've also used the 2 smallest square "littles" glass casserole dishes for this recipe (using 2 bananas): The littlest square one (5.1 inch x 5.1 inch / 13 cm x 13 cm / 20 oz / 591 ml) one needed 45 min in the oven. The little square one (6.15 inch x 6.15 inch / 15.6 cm. 15.6 cm / 24 oz / 710 ml) needed 50 min in the oven total. I also adjusted the rack as directed, since the oven I used for that version was not fan-assisted.