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Do you have a dessert recipe that you can just whip up in a few minutes because you’ve made it so many times? Maybe you call it your “signature” recipe that defines you as a baker? If you have one, please share with me what it is – I’d really like to know! Mine is this banana bread recipe. I have used this recipe for years and haven’t felt the need to switch recipes. This is the one, the tried and true. Everyone in my household loves my banana bread. It just makes everyone happy! My house smell wonderful. I have a happy husband, happy kids, and that makes me happy, and yes, I am that domestic goddess who excels in her baking and loves to hear the compliments knowing deep inside it was really no trouble at all. I have this recipe down.
Just look at this wrinkled, splattered page in my recipe book –
That’s all love right there!
This is the only recipe that I make from this book. My husband once told me: “If you can get 1 or 2 recipes out of a cookbook, then it’s worth spending the money on it.” I love my husband! I always double the recipe because it goes quick (we are a family of 5) and because sometimes I like to share a loaf. A doubled recipe yields 2 smaller loaves and a bigger loaf.
A trip to the grocery store always includes a lot bananas, and if they go “bad” (I’m talking beyond spot stage), well, that’s a good thing because that’s the time to make banana bread.
Banana Nut Bread – Adapted from “Can We Cook” by Jackie Olden
Yields 1 loaf
3 medium bananas
Lemon juice
1/2 cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas and sprinkle with lemon juice. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and salt, beat well. Add flour and soda. Beat well; add vanilla, pecans (if using), and mashed bananas. Grease and flour a loaf pan (9x5x3″). Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake. To successfully slice bread, cool several hours or overnight or if you can’t wait, partially freeze. Now you can slice without crumbling.