Banana Nut Bread Recipe
February 23rd was National Banana Bread Day, so I baked some banana nut bread this past weekend.
Evidently this sweet treat has quite a history. When bananas first arrived in the United States back in 1870, they were seen only as a fruit, not an ingredient. It took World War I, the Great Depression, and a surplus of bananas to bring this bread into existence. Lucky for us, necessity spawned ingenuity.
Banana bread is delicious all by itself, but we also love it sliced, buttered, and toasted under the broiler for breakfast, as a tea sandwich with cream cheese spread between two slices for lunch, or with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce as a dessert.
Banana Bread Recipe:
1 C sugar
¼ C butter
1 egg
1 C flour
¾ tsp baking soda
⅛ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe mashed bananas
3 tbs buttermilk
½ C chopped pecans
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg. Mix in flour and salt. Add bananas, vanilla, and nuts if you choose. Pour into a greased and floured pan and bake at 350˚ for 1 hour. Turn pan upside down to cool and the loaf will fall out onto the rack.
Tips and Tricks:
Banana bread is freezer-safe and should keep for at least three months.
If your bananas aren’t ripe enough for banana bread, poke holes into the peel using a fork. Place in a 300°F oven for 15-20 minutes. The bananas should soften.
If your bananas are overripe, but you don’t have time to bake banana bread this week, freeze them in their skins. When you’re ready to bake bread, let them come to room temperature, and the bananas will slide right out of the skins and into your mixing bowl!