Leaving the Asylum

Part of our family’s goals for the year is to reduce our waste. This morning I realized I was facing a perfect chance to begin to put this goal into action and I ceased it.

A few days after Christmas our local grocery store had Bananas bagged up in what looked like half a peck apple bags and had them priced for $.52 PER BAG. This was too good of a deal to pass up so I snagged a bag, despite being worried about our ability to eat them all before they passed the yummy state. This morning while packing kiddo’s lunch for school I noticed that the bananas had gotten to the “use me or lose me” point. The old me would have shrugged it off and thrown the bananas away, grumbling that we need to eat them quicker next time, but this me decided that these bananas were not lost causes instead they were the perfect ingredient for a special treat for the family, Banana Bread!! So I dug through my recipes and found my Mom’s recipe that I haven’t used since I was a kid and decided to see if it was as yummy as I remember growing up.

Mom’s recipe is super easy and quick to mix up. I actually had enough bananas to make two loaves of the bread but, instead of doubling the recipe, I made each loafs batter independently to ensure no issues. So to begin:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees:

 

I used my trusty kitchen aide mixer but a hand mixer would work well with this batter too because it is not a thick consistency. It is however a rather wet batter and likes to hold on to surfaces so ensure you grease your loaf pans well and be prepared to scrape out the batter from a bowl, a simple spatula worked great for me.

First take:

½ cup of sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup of shortening (I used butter flavored)

Cream these ingredients together. Be careful throughout the mixing process to NOT OVER MIX.

Sift together:

1 ¾ cups flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Keep your 1 cup of mashed bananas (approximately 2 medium bananas) separate from both your wet and dry mixture.

Add the dry mix to the wet batter, alternating with the mashed banana, ensuring to mix after each addition. You only want to mix so the flour and banana are fully incorporated. You could add nuts to this batter at this point, folding them into the batter gently with a spoon before pouring the batter into your greased loaf pans.

My recipe calls for an 9”x5”x3” pan. I am sure I have this size but I chose to use my trusted Paula Dean loaf pans and I am sure they are a bit bigger than what was called for by the recipe. You do not need to worry about smoothing the batter on top the bread will rise some and the top will crack in cooking.

 

Now into the oven they go!

Let them bake for 45-50 minutes at the preheated temperature of 350 degrees. They will be brown on top, have a nice golden crust to them and have cracked tops. Test the doneness of the loaves with your trusty tooth pick or butter knife. If it comes out clean after you’ve stabbed your loaf with it you know that loaf is done!

Remove the loaves from their pans after letting them rest for about 5 minutes and allow them to finish cooling completely on wire racks.

 

Looks Yummy right?

 

The salt n pepper shakers seem to think so….

 

It didn’t take long for the loaf to cool enough for me to remove it from the pan and thanks to my trusty non-stick baking spray (I prefer the one with flour added) the loaves slid right out and into my hand.

I let them cool fully on cooling racks on my counter then packaged them into large ziplock style freezer bags that I squeezed as much air out of I could.

Quick note: this recipe does not produce a super sweet banana bread. If you want a sweeter bread increase the sugar amount or even add some brown sugar for dept of flavor and sweetness.