B is for Banana Bread

Half an hour ago, I had one sad, speckled banana languishing in my fruit bowl.   I kept casting sidelong glances at the banana, noting that I must carry the poor thing out to the compost pile.  But instead (partly because I hate walking things out to the compost pile, and partly because I heart muffins) I decided to make banana bread.

Normally, I make banana bread with the recipe from The New Best Recipe.  But tonight, this recipe was too finicky for my taste, and besides, I didn't have the plain yogurt that it called for.  Instead, I turned to the banana bread from my childhood.  B is for Banana Bread.  From the Alpha Bakery cookbook.  It's likely that your mom also owns this little book- I think you got it by sending $3 and the bar codes snipped from empty sacks of Gold Medal flour to Betty Crocker circa 1991. Anyway, a quick google later, I was in possession of the recipe! And half an hour later, I was eating a muffin! And it was quite a lovely treat! And if you've done any baking in the last 6 months, it is exceedingly likely you'll have everything you need on hand! Exclamation points!

Couple notes: I only had one banana, which equaled 1/2 cup mashed banana, so I did a half-assed job of stirring up a third of what the recipe below calls for.  The muffins still turned out delicious.  Also, I had a pretty fun substitution- I didn't have any walnuts in the pantry, which is what I normally use when I make banana bread, but I did have a sack of the honey-glazed pecans they sell in the bulk section of Central Market, so I chopped up a handful of the those and tossed them in the batter.  This shit is good bananas! B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

B is for Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 3/4 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease loaf pan with butter, or line muffin pan with papers.
3. Mix sugar, bananas, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (about 20 minutes for muffins, 50-60 minutes for bread).

From The Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook, published by General Mills/Betty Crocker in 1991.