I got this recipe from the King Arthur Flour site. We had one overripe banana on the counter and several others that were very ripe. I decided to make banana bread. Patrick has been finding recipes on the King Arthur site, so I searched it and found this.

Funny, I don’t bake desserts much. Not because I can’t — I just don’t. But once in a while I get the urge.

The recipe below is slightly modified from the original.

• We were out of brown sugar, and with the current craziness, so was the store. I substituted white sugar.
• The recipe called for 2/3 cup sugar; I reduced it. The result tastes great and is not overly sweet.
• Added the 2 Tbsp baking cocoa on a whim. I’m keeping this!
• Left out the walnuts ‘cuz we didn’t have any on hand.

Lorraine really likes this one and asked me to add it to our book.

Banana Bread

• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (from about 1-1/2 pounds unpeeled bananas)
• 3 Tbsp apricot jam or orange marmalade, optional but tasty
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 large eggs
• 2-1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Lightly grease a 9×5″ loaf pan; or a 12×4″ tea loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, beating until smooth. Add the mashed bananas, jam, honey, and eggs, again beating until smooth. Add the flour, then the walnuts, stirring just until smooth.

Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Bake the bread for 45 minutes, then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning.

Bake for an additional 25 minutes (20 minutes if you’re baking in a tea loaf pan). Remove the bread from the oven; a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean, with a few wet crumbs clinging to it. The tester shouldn’t show any sign of uncooked batter. If it does, bake the bread an additional 5 minutes, or until it tests done.

Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove it from the pan, and cool it completely on a rack.

Notes:

This is a dense bread, but moist & tasty.

Let the unbaked bread rest for at least 10 minutes. My guess is the baking soda/powder are working to make the bread lighter.

This needs the full time to bake. I pulled it 5 minutes early as it looked done, and the toothpick test passed. However, there was a marble sized area in the middle of the bread (width- & length-wise) at the top that was underdone. When doing the toothpick test, do it in the exact middle of the bread.

This batch used 3 bananas, although most recipes call for 2. Don’t stint on the bananas!

I used apricot jam for this batch. I’m going to try fig jam next.

Banana Cake

• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed, ripe banana
• 1/2 cup sour milk
• 1 tsp baking soda (dissolve in sour milk)
• 1-3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (use your favorite nuts)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend sugar & shortening. Add the following in stages, one at a time: eggs; banana; sour milk; flour; baking powder; salt. Add walnuts & vanilla extract. Grease & flour a 9″ x 13″ pan; pour in cake batter. Bake at 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes.