We returned from my ten-year college reunion (more on that soon, I promise!) to discover an abundance of overripe bananas in our fruit bowl. Seeing that Will can only drink so many smoothies in a 24-hour period (oops, did I just out Will as a smoothie drinker?), I decided to make banana bread. We happen to have all of the ingredients on-hand already, which I would like to credit to my skills as a chef/grocery buyer, but I think all credit is due to the simplicity of the recipe that we’ve used since we were married:
My recipe comes from my mother-in-law, Barbara, who on the eve of our wedding gave me the most incredible cookbook where she handwrote all of her family recipes (emphasizing Will’s favorites, of course) and left an abundance of room for us to add our own favorites as we discover them. Sadly as our wonderfully hectic life suggests, we haven’t been able to add much more to the cookbook; but we’ve enjoyed making those recipes that were given to us including this one for banana bread:
Banana Bread
1 ¾ cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
¼ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana (usually around 3 average-sized bananas)
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
Stir together flour, soda and salt. Cream shortening and sugar. Beat together eggs, banana, sour cream and vanilla; then beat into shortening and sugar, alternating with dry ingredients. Pour batter into a greased 9” loaf pan and bake at 350° for 55 minutes (check it at 50 minutes – most ovens are hotter than mine). Remove and let cool for 5-10 minutes in pan before removing to finish cooling on a wire rack.
It’s very easy to make (believe me, I am no wonder chef; plus I made this with Frances and George at my heels all morning) and it’s delicious!
This may be one of the rare occasions that I wish you could see and smell one of my pictures.
Have a great week everyone!
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