Growing up, my grandmother baked every single holiday season. And she baked a lot: kolachen, a secret family recipe—so secret, I’m not even sure I’m spelling it right; lizzies, little cookies with candied cherries and alcohol; sugar cookies; chocolate chip cookies; and banana nut bread.
Since her passing, I’ve enjoyed a slice of banana nut bread here and there at Starbucks, but I’ve been missing the moist and delicious bread during the holiday months. And since I found my grandmother’s bread pans in my cabinet, I decided this year I would revive the family tradition.
There was only one problem: I had never made banana nut bread before, nor did I have a recipe.
So I hopped online and found a quick and easy recipe, or so it claimed, via Simply Recipes. So simple in fact, this recipe doesn’t even require the use of an electric mixer. Needless to say, this was the one I decided to go with after reading a few other variations of ways to make banana nut bread on the web.
First, what’s needed:
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed (we went with 4 and smashed them easily with a fork)
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 cup of sugar (the recipe says you can reduce this to ¾ of a cup, but why do that?)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of walnuts, chopped (or pecans, really; we used both at one point or another this December)
Pinch of salt
Now let’s cook:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
With a wooden spoon, mix the butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.
Stir in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.
Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and stir in.
Add the flour and mix well.
Stir in the chopped nuts.
Pour the mixture into a buttered 4X8 loaf pan.
Bake for one hour. If baking more than one at a time, add a little bit of time to ensure the loaves cook through (we did three at a time and added thirty minutes—the bread was not overcooked).
Cool on a rack. Remove from the pan and slice.
Best served warm with butter.
Are you a banana nut bread fan? Have any other easy bread recipes to share? I’d love to hear from you!
Original recipe found on this site:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread
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Tiffany A. White is the author of the YA mystery Football Sweetheart series available on Kindle and Nook. She is available for contact via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or via email at tiffany {at} tiffanyawhite {dot} com.
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I had the pleasure of eating a loaf of this bread and it was FANTASTIC !!!
Awe… thanks, dad! 🙂
I actually have some ripe bananas that I froze just for this purpose! I may try your recipe instead of my usual. Thanks!
If you try this one, I’d love to hear what you think compared to your usual recipe!
I’ll report back. 🙂
My mother used to make banana nut bread. She would undercook it so there was raw dough in the middle part of the loaf, which I would take off her hands. Mmmmm.
Does the raw banana nut bread dough taste like raw cookie dough? That’s pretty tasty…
As good or better.
Love banana nut bread. I’ve made it on a whim all year around. I’d prowl the used fruit rack, you know, that place where fruits and veggies wait their fate. I pick the closest ones to being super-overripe. I didn’t need as much sugar.
How much sugar do you use?
Diabetes has cut sugar waay down Use Stevia now. Same amount of carbs but twice as sweet. Just shy of 3/4 C works but that’s because I crave sweets now I can’t have them.
My husband loves banana nut bread!