Monday, February 12, 2007

Basic Banana Bread

In case anyone doesn't have an easy recipe for banana bread, I thought I would share mine here. Unfortunately I don't know where I got it from. This version is scribbled in red ink on a page torn from a notebook in my handwriting. Judging by the other notes scribbled on the paper, it looks like someone gave it to me over the phone when I was working out of state.


1/3  cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mashed bananas
Two large bananas will generally produce 1 cup of banana mush. This is an area of the recipe that seems flexible. When I doubled the recipe yesterday, I used five bananas, because I had five that were too far gone to eat. It was more than two cups, and it came out fine. Last time I made the recipe, the two bananas I had one hand were small and it mashed up to less than 1 cup. Tastes good either way.


In a large bowl, cream the sugar and shortening, then add the eggs.

Stir remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.




Grease pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Alternatively add dry ingredients, then bananas, to sugar/egg mixture.

Bake for 45 minutes.


I actually cooked it for closer to an hour yesterday, but I have long suspected this oven of running low. Usually I just boost the temp a little higher, but I forgot yesterday. Basically it's done when the batter is set and the bread is golden brown. My favorite way to eat this banana bread is warm, with butter. Apply thin pats of butter and microwave for 30 seconds. So good... it's almost like a dessert, banana cake maybe.


Today we went grocery shopping. When we got home, I made macaroni and cheese to pack for my lunches for the rest of the week. When I was doing field work and needed packable lunches, I got in the habit of making a big batch of something like pasta salad or tabouli on the weekends, and then eating the same thing for lunch all week. Mac & cheese is definitely not field food, as it's best hot, but with this cold weather and the stress of my first week, I'm going for comfort food.

Speaking of work, I have to go fill out a stack of paperwork that came along with the official job offer. It's just basic standard new hire stuff, the I-9, W-4s, and health insurance enrollment forms. I'm not thrilled to be doing this on my time, but I figure they wouldn't have mailed it to me if they didn't want me to do it ahead of time. Sigh. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

9 comments:

jo(e) said...

February is definitely the month for comfort food. This post made me want to bake something ....

Anonymous said...

Happy first day of work!

And I can't wait to move where we have a better functioning oven so I can use your banana bread recipe. Our oven has serious problems the first being that the knob won't stay at 350.

a/k/a Nadine said...

Good luck today.

I thought I was doing well making brownies from a box. Add water, oil, eggs, stir, bake (or not). Someone gave me a fabulous recipe for white chocolate cranberry biscottis yesterday. As if.

Anonymous said...

Oohhh, Erin. You might have to pass that recipe on, if you don't mind. I love anything with cranberries in it!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

HAH! I just found a recipe for White chocolate cranberry biscottis today!!!

Very coincidental.

Sara, congratulation on your first day at work--it sucks that you have to fill out all that paperwork on your own time--hope that's not a bad oment about the ethics of this work place. :-(

third attempt to comment

I want you to be happy there!

Nicole said...

The last minute seems to be the only time to do anything really. Does your bread cook in the middle too, I can never get mine to cook all the way through without burning the edges.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I tagged you on No Polar Coordinates today for a six weird things about me Meme (or six new weird things???) Oh well.

BerryBird said...

Nicole, this batch does have a little gooey patch in the center, only an inch maybe. I'd rather have that than be burnt and dry around the edges. Last time I cooked it at a higher temp though, and didn't get that.

Mary, just to warn you, it might take me a few days to get to the meme. I haven't figured out a balance with blogging and working yet.

Aliki2006 said...

Yum! It has been ages since I made banana bread--those pictures make me want to try it ASAP!

Good luck with the new job--AND all the paperwork!