banana bread

Bought some bananas. Ate a few. The rest went spotty brown before I could say "School's out! Hello SUMMER!!!" Instead of throwing these bananas and my money in the garbage, I decided to save them by making banana bread. Everyone in the family loved it - everyone - from age 2 - 31. Success.

I searched through my cookbooks and noticed a few recipes called for cake flour. I didn't have any on hand so I went with the recipe that called for all-purpose flour. I doubled the batch. Made the first loaf without nuts and then added walnuts to the second. Both are delicious. You could also get kinda crazy and throw in a handful or two of chocolate chips. I'm just sayin'.

Banana Bread

taken from the Joy of Cooking

makes 1 loaf

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

¾ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

5 1/3 TB unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 2)

½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch (6 cup) loaf pan.

Whisk together thoroughly the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In a separate large bowl, beat butter and sugar on high speed until lightened in color and texture, 2-3 minutes. Beat in the flour mixture until blended and the consistency of brown sugar. Gradually beat in the eggs. Fold in the bananas and nuts just until combined.