Saturday Thoughts...Using My Overripe Bananas

Clockwise, top R:  parchment lined pan, ready for the oven, mixed batter, weighing sugar into bowl with butter, mashed bananas, ripe banana, weighing flour.     
Center top:  Sliced bread (the cutting board with knife says Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread in German), it belonged to our Grandmother.      

An unexpected trip left me with 3 very ripe bananas when I got home after 3 days. I don’t like to eat ripe bananas, so I looked through my files for a recipe that would use all three.

 This is a very simple recipe for banana bread that really lets the banana flavor shine.  I almost thought I forgot to list the nuts in the recipe, but there aren’t any.  Just old-fashioned, inexpensive ingredients.  At 12¢ per slice, compare it to coffee shop quick bread prices! 

It’s moist and dense, not dry and crumbly – a perfect texture.  Don’t slice it until its cool, preferably after wrapping and refrigerating overnight so the flavor develops and it slices easily.  I freeze extra slices with 2 sheets of waxed paper between them so I can quickly thaw them while coffee is making.  Myrna recently bought some 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch parchment paper from King Arthur and I bought half of them...should be just the thing for this project.

Be sure your bananas are very ripe so you get that full flavor.  It took 3 to get my cup of mashed bananas.  I used a small 8 x 3” Norpro loaf pan and it was a good size to get square slices.  I’ve never made a Land O Lakes recipe we didn’t like.                    

                            Mom's Banana Bread

     3/4      cup  sugar -- 5.25 ounces

     1/2      cup  Butter -- softened

  2             Large  Eggs

  1             Cup  Bananas -- (2-3 medium, very ripe) mashed (weighs 9 ounces peeled and mashed)

     1/2      teaspoon  vanilla

  1 1/2      cups  all-purpose flour -- 6.75 ounces

     1/2      teaspoon  baking soda

     1/2      teaspoon  salt

     1/4      teaspoon  ground cinnamon

1.      Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 8x4-inch loaf pan, or if desired use parchment and grease the bottom and one inch up the sides of the pan, line with parchment and grease like the pan; set aside.

2.      Combine sugar, butter and eggs in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add bananas and vanilla. Beat at low speed until well mixed. Stir in all remaining ingredients by hand.

3.      Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake 60-70 minutes (my loaf only took 55 minutes) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan. Place onto cooling rack. Cool completely.  

  "Land O Lakes"  

Yield:  "16 servings"