banana bread
I kicked off my blog with a post in which I swore off banana bread forever. A string of failed recipes had left me jaded.
Well.
I should have listened to Zack.
He told me I should try the recipe in a cookbook called Back Porch Secrets, a book of southern recipes collected and published by Eli’s grandmother’s sister. His great aunt? Marcia Bennett. It took a while for me to find the book, but I came across it when we finally finished building the cubbies!
It’s a treasure. The back of the book is filled with excerpts from a cookbook published in 1870, with recipes for things like brain croquets, pigeon soup, “mush”, chitterlings and stewed eels, and a Georgia sponge cake that charmingly calls for twelve eggs, the weight of those in sugar, and the weight of six in flour, to be baked in a quick oven.
The recipe for Julia’s Extra Good Pimento Cheese was fantastic, and I’m hoping to soon have an occasion to make Eli’s great-grandmother’s Caramel Cake. And perhaps some Aggression Cookies, should the opportunity arise.
But I’m guessing you’re here for the banana bread.
I always seem to pick up some bananas at the grocery store. My intentions are good; I tell myself that they’ll make a nice, healthy snack. But somehow they end up withering away on the kitchen counter. It’s been about a year or so since my last banana bread bender, enough time for the memories to fade away.
This is The One. Moist, soft, perfect. I totally overbaked the thing, and it was still delightful.
the recipe
Banana Bread
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
- Grease a loaf pan — I used a 10-inch (25 cm) loaf pan, which worked, but may have been overkill
- 1 stick 113 g butter, softened, salted, or if unsalted, add a pinch of salt to recipe
- 1 cup 200 g sugar, I used half white, half brown
- 2 100 g eggs, beaten
- 2 cups 240 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon 5 mL baking soda
- 2 regular sized, or 3 small extra-ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 teaspoon 5 mL vanilla
- 1/2 cup 60 g nuts, chopped, used walnuts
- Sift together flour and baking soda.
- Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Add flour/soda and mix just a few seconds, then add mashed bananas and vanilla. Mix just until combined.
- Fold in nuts using a rubber spatula.
- Scrape mixture into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
each column is one step, working left to right — hover a cell for the full instruction
- 1 stick 113 g butter, softened, salted, or if unsalted, add a pinch of salt to recipe
- 1 cup 200 g sugar, I used half white, half brown
- 2 100 g eggs, beaten
- 2 cups 240 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon 5 mL baking soda
- 2 regular sized, or 3 small extra-ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 teaspoon 5 mL vanilla
- 1/2 cup 60 g nuts, chopped, used walnuts
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a loaf pan — I used a 10-inch (25 cm) loaf pan, which worked, but may have been overkill.
Sift together flour and baking soda.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time.
Add flour/soda and mix just a few seconds, then add mashed bananas and vanilla. Mix just until combined.
Fold in nuts using a rubber spatula.
Scrape mixture into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
— from Back Porch Secrets