banana bread
I kicked off my blog with a post in which I swore off banana bread forever. A string of failed recipes had left me jaded.
Well.
I should have listened to Zack.
He told me I should try the recipe in a cookbook called Back Porch Secrets, a book of southern recipes collected and published by Eli’s grandmother’s sister. His great aunt? Marcia Bennett. It took a while for me to find the book, but I came across it when we finally finished building the cubbies!
It’s a treasure. The back of the book is filled with excerpts from a cookbook published in 1870, with recipes for things like brain croquets, pigeon soup, “mush”, chitterlings and stewed eels, and a Georgia sponge cake that charmingly calls for twelve eggs, the weight of those in sugar, and the weight of six in flour, to be baked in a quick oven.
The recipe for Julia’s Extra Good Pimento Cheese was fantastic, and I’m hoping to soon have an occasion to make Eli’s great-grandmother’s Caramel Cake. And perhaps some Aggression Cookies, should the opportunity arise.
But I’m guessing you’re here for the banana bread.
I always seem to pick up some bananas at the grocery store. My intentions are good; I tell myself that they’ll make a nice, healthy snack. But somehow they end up withering away on the kitchen counter. It’s been about a year or so since my last banana bread bender, enough time for the memories to fade away.
This is The One. Moist, soft, perfect. I totally overbaked the thing, and it was still delightful.
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Banana Bread (from Back Porch Secrets)
makes one loaf
1 cup sugar (I used half white, half brown)
1 stick butter (salted, or if unsalted, add a pinch of salt to recipe), softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 extra-ripe regular sized bananas, or 3 small, mashed
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (used walnuts)
Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour and baking soda. Grease a loaf pan. I used a 10″ loaf pan, which worked, but may have been overkill.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour/soda and mix just a few seconds, then add mashed bananas and vanilla. Mix just until combined, then fold in nuts using a rubber spatula.
Scrape mixture into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
This looks wonderrfullll, im new to your blog and it is so beautiful! Your photos are gorgeous! Saving this recipe for sure and will be a regular visitor from now on :)
thanks so much!
This is a great recipe, I actually have a loaf baking right now. This will be the 3rd time I’ve made it. Thanks!!
thanks, glad you liked it!
GREAT recipe! I’ve even substituted in rice flour for gluten free, and it’s still very good!