Foo’s Banana Bread

I spent this weekend laying low due to several days of migraines. It’s been months and months since I’ve had one. No fun at all. Thankfully I have medication that works, it just leave me in a zombie like state.

I spent yesterday looking through cookbooks while Dan worked on his car in the garage. I contemplated doing many things. I settled on reading and baking. I kept staring at the 5 organic bananas that had turned from a lovely shade of yellow to speckled brown/almost black. I have been buying small organic bananas to throw into smoothies for after my longer treadmill sessions. Anything over 6 miles gets a smoothie. I’ve been sticking around 5 miles for most of the week and actually took 2 days off due to the headaches. I didn’t want the bananas to go to waste, so I decided to make banana bread. I had a recipe from Dan’s Dad, one from his Grandmother and a scribbled one that I’d had in my recipe box for years. I combined ingredients from all three to create my own pretty easy recipe.

The Ingredients:

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs – beaten
2 Cups Mashed Ripe Bananas – This used all 5 small bananas
1/3 Cup Apple Sauce – I used sweetened because it’s all we had – not pictured, was a last minute decision
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/8 Teaspoon Cinnamon
3 Grinder Twists of Fresh Nutmeg – probably close to 1/8 Teaspoon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a seperate bowl, mix the brown sugar and butter together until creamy. I microwaved my butter a little and then used a fork to hand mix.

Once mixed, stir in eggs, mashed bananas and applesauce.

The bananas looked pretty good for being so dark and ugly on the outside. I used a fork to mash them.

Make sure you get everything blended (by hand). Then add the vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir again.

It’s important to not overwork the batter. Just make sure everything is moist and that there are no clumps of flour.

Pour batter into loaf pan. I sprayed my pan – didn’t have any shortening to grease it. All 3 recipes called for greasing the pan. Bake in oven for 65-70 minutes. Mine took the full 75 minutes. I tested it 3 times with a toothpick. Once the toothpick came out clean, I removed the pan and placed it on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Then I flipped the loaf pan over and it fell right out.

That never happens…

The house smelled amazing. I buttered up a piece and OMG, it was incredible. It had the perfect crusty outside and the inside was super moist. I was worried that I’d be able to taste the applesauce, but it was straight banana goodness.

A perfect lazy Saturday snack. Dan came into the kitchen after putting his new engine back into the car and was covered in car grease and grime.

I asked him to pose for a photo as a joke, but then he actually grabbed a piece with his filthy hands… hah! hah!

Sidenote: Dan and I got the subscription service working on the blog. The link to subscribe is in the right navigation bar at the bottom.

Off to enjoy my Sunday, hope you are all having a nice one.

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3 comments

    • Susi on September 20, 2010 at 4:47 am

    Good looking banana bread! This is like comfort food for me and never lasts long in our house!

    • Amy on September 21, 2010 at 10:46 am

    The banana bread looks delish. I heart anything “bread”! That pic with Dan’s dirty hand had me laughing out loud. Love it!

    • Laura on June 24, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    I lost my dad’s recipe when we moved so like you I made my own. I’m curious to try yours with the nutmeg, vanilla and applesauce.

    I like making my banana bread into muffins. They cook faster (about 20mins) and this makes it easy to pass out to my kids, take to work to share, or parties, etc. I also love to slice the muffin open and put butter on mine but my husband prefers cream cheese.

    Seeing Daniel’s greasy hand reminds me of when our dad would come in from the garage!

    Thanks Kath.

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