Banana Nut Bread

There’s banana nut bread then there is this banana nut bread.

I’m sure you have been making banana nut bread about as long as I have. You may have your favorite recipe that was your mother’s, grandmother’s or your favorite aunt’s. But, I’m hoping you will try my recipe; or I should say my sister’s recipe from her husband’s Mamaw.

All recipes are made better with over ripe bananas. In our house it is hard to get an over ripe banana because my husband loves them any way and the darker the better. Over ripe bananas aren’t sold at my favorite market anymore because the produce guy told me the bakery gets them. I’m sure the bakery’s bread is not nearly as good as this recipe.

Recently, I planned on making banana nut bread for a friend (Janet) who had just had a knee replacement. So, I buy six perfect bananas and put them on the counter so they can ripen and then can be used to make the most delicious banana bread I have ever tasted. The next morning one banana mysteriously disappeared. I had forgotten to tell my husband not to touch them or put a DO NOT EAT sign on the bunch. The next day, again, one banana gone missing and they were just starting to get to the really dark stage I like for a banana intended for bread and then another banana gone. Finally I was left with three bananas to make a recipe that called for six bananas.

What’s a girl to do other than make 1/2 the recipe. Luckily for me and for my friend (one recipe normally makes 2 large loaves) I got 4 small pans from the half recipe. I kept one and gave my friend the other three. This bread is the best right out of the oven, warm with some room temperature salted butter smeared on it but is just as good cool or warmed in the microwave.

I hope this bread helped in Janet’s recovery. I think my sister’s zucchini bread is just as good as this banana bread and that recipe may be coming soon.

Fall is the time to make some yummy nut breads and this recipe is just in time for some Christmas baking if you want to make something homemade for a special person. While in Austin over Thanksgiving my son, Paul, had a bunch of over ripe bananas and wanted to make banana bread. I think it took us all of about 5 minutes to whip this up; of course that was both of us doing the measuring.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Speaking of good, yummy breads, this recipe for Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits is just right for the holidays for an appetizer or for your weekend morning brunch.

There are the bananas I waited patiently to turn brown.

Since my bananas were nice and soft along with my butter, I decided to cream all this by hand instead of dragging out my big mixer.

Add the bananas and mash up. I used my potato masher. If I were doing this in my Kitchen Aid, I would have just thrown them in and let them beat up.

Add in the dry ingredients and stir until well blended. I have hundreds of these white lunch sacks and decided to use one to put my dry ingredients in; it saved dirtying up another bowl.

After you get the bananas mashed up, add in the chopped pecans.

Grease and flour your pans.  I used 8 of these smaller pans or use 2 normal size bread pans.

Fill the pans a little more than half full.

Let set in pans for 5 minutes before removing to cooking rack to cool before wrapping.