Monday, November 14, 2011

Ba's Banana Bread -repost





This is what you do with those bananas that have gotten too ripe. Banana bread was one of my dearly loved maternal grandmother's standards and when I make it, it's always a memory trip. I have the recipe in Ba's lovely spiky handwriting and I have her little wire racks to turn the loaves out on to cool. The smell fills the house and I'm ten years old again, a tall skinny little girl who didn't hesitate to butter a slice of the still-warm banana bread.

Some household acts are more than just cooking or cleaning -- some are sacraments.



Ba’s Banana Bread

Really more of a cake than a bread, it's dense and moist and sweet. Excellent toasted with butter, delicious cold and spread with cream cheese, just fine all by itself.

Makes two loaves (freezes well)
2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. ripe bananas, mashed well (3 large bananas = 2 c.)
2 tsp. baking soda, stirred into the mashed bananas
3 1/2 c. sifted flour (sift before measuring)
1 tsp. salt, sifted with the flour

Prepare your loaf tins by greasing well (more butter) and cutting a piece of waxed paper to cover the bottom of the pan. Lay it in the greased pan and grease the top of the paper too.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cream together the butter and sugar. When well blended, stir in the beaten eggs. Mix well, add bananas and flour alternately till you have a well blended batter. Do not over-mix. Pour into loaf tins and bake at 325 for about an hour. A knife or bamboo skewer poked into the middle of a loaf should come out clean.

Turn out of loaf pans, peel off waxed paper, and let cool on a rack.

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10 comments:

Stella Jones said...

Bananas quite often go brown here if we forget to eat them so I'm going to snaffle this recipe and make some up. It looks so delicious I can hardly wait to try it! Thank you.

Victoria said...

It's funny ~ I don't like bananas, but I love banana bread. I'm going to try and figure out the high altitude adjustments for this because it sounds so much better than the recipe I have. (Recipes that use baking soda or baking powder are a real challenge when one lives over 6,000 feet above sea level).

"Some household acts are more than just cooking or cleaning -- some are sacraments." I really like that.

Pat in east TN said...

This recipe is a keeper ... I've made it many time since your first post and always get compliments on it.

Anonymous said...

I have adjusted my banana bread recipe to use 3/4 cup of pecan meal to replace that much flour (mine makes one loaf) and I also add frozen blueberries, rinsed, to the bananas. If you also add golden raisins, you really don't need any sugar at all. The fruit sweetens it plenty, the pecan meal makes it healthier too. But, do try adding blueberries, what a treat.
Mary Anne Rudolph in Cosby TN

Susan M. Bell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Susan M. Bell said...

I have my mom's banana bread recipe which she wrote on a 3 x 5 index card. And even though my mom and I did not get along, especially the last few years of her life, it's one of my most prized possessions. Seems most of my happy childhood memories revolve around food, and her banana bread is one of the best parts of that.

Have to say, your recipe sounds a bit simpler though, so I will probably be trying that as well. Have you ever added nuts to yours? My mom used to, but I love it either way. (And I gotta wonder how it would taste as a sweet french toast. Yummy I bet.)

Vicki Lane said...

I sometimes add pecan pieces -- the blueberry idea appeals to me. This, as I said, is more like cake than bread -- and, except for the bananas, sure isn't health food.

Friko said...

Some household acts are more than just cooking or cleaning -- some are sacraments.

I think I need to paint this above my AGA.

jennyfreckles said...

Sounds yummy, I might try that - I often have brown speckled bananas. They ripen very quickly in a warm house.

Tracy Golightly-Garcia said...

Hello Vicki

I have a very bad habit of throwing out old bananas. This seems to be a great recipe and I must give it a try.

Thanks for sharing!

Best
Tracy :)