1. 1. Prepare Your Baking Pan and Oven: Start by preheating your oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or line it with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides to easily lift the bread out later. This prevents sticking and makes for a cleaner removal.

2. 2. Combine Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg. Make sure there are no lumps and the spices are evenly distributed throughout the flour mixture. This ensures consistent flavor and rise.

3. 3. Mash the Bananas: In a large bowl, mash your ripe bananas thoroughly with a fork or a potato masher until mostly smooth with a few small lumps remaining. The riper the bananas, the easier they will be to mash and the sweeter your bread will be.

4. 4. Mix Wet Ingredients: To the mashed bananas, add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cottage cheese, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk these ingredients together until they are well combined and the cottage cheese is mostly incorporated. Don’t worry if there are a few small curds visible; they will melt into the batter during baking.

5. 5. Combine Wet and Dry Mixtures: Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredient mixture. Stir gently with a spatula or wooden spoon until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter; overmixing can lead to a tough, dense bread. A few streaks of flour are perfectly fine.

6. 6. Pour and Bake: Pour the batter evenly into your prepared loaf pan. Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. If the top starts to brown too quickly, you can loosely tent it with aluminum foil for the last 10-15 minutes of baking.

7. 7. Cool Before Slicing: Once baked, remove the loaf pan from the oven and let the banana bread cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes. Then, carefully lift the bread out of the pan using the parchment paper overhang (if used) or invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slicing while warm can cause it to crumble, so patience is key for neat slices.