Banana Nut Bread Semi-Fail
September 15th, 2009Day Saved by Desperation and Willingness to Take Insane Risks
I made banana nut bread last night. First time. We’re trying to keep weight on my sister during her cancer treatment, and I had frozen bananas from one of my trees, so it seemed like the thing to do. She gave me a recipe from one of her friends, and I gave it a shot.
It came out very well, but I had to mess with the recipe to make it work. I think this person recited the recipe from memory and got it wrong, because it called for 2 1/2 cups of flour and only one egg and one stick of butter. It was so dry I couldn’t turn it into dough, let alone batter. I added a second egg and some banana liqueur, and it worked. Next time, two eggs, a stick and a half of butter, and two cups of flour. There is no point in playing.
The recipe didn’t contain any spices. I think a small amount of cinnamon and nutmeg would be helpful. If I get it right, I’ll publish the recipe.
It’s amazing how badly people cook. You hear about a fantastic recipe for this or that, and it turns out to be something off the back of a can or box, which forty million people are already using. That’s pretty much what happened here. I looked at the web, trying to find out what the recipe needed, and I noticed that virtually all banana nut bread recipes are nearly identical to this one.
Not my favorite thing on earth, but if you make it right, it’s worth the effort.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:45 PM
The one and only time I’ve made banana nut bread, I used the recipe from Joy of Cooking. Despite JoC’s deserved recipe for bland and boring food, the bread turned out quite well. I don’t remember much of the recipe off-hand, but I do remember that it called for chopped apricots.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Also about a tablespoon of vanilla.
September 15th, 2009 at 2:34 PM
i have a fabulous and easy banana bread recipe. it’s old and has been around the family forever. very moist, freezes well.
the key is to let the bananas be overripe.
be glad to send it to you.
also several other really good, moist cake/breads – pear bread, fig preserve (sounds weird, but excellent – from 70s southern living mags), great carrot cake.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:00 PM
I’d throw in some vanilla, too. Nutmeg or a hint of cinnamon would be good.
September 16th, 2009 at 1:20 AM
We adopted this old guy, “Bucky” (Dartmouth class of ’42)that was our neighbor on St Simons Island. Bucky was forgetful and would buy bananas every time he went to the grocery store. I cooked Banana Nut Bread once a week for nearly a year and here is what I came up with:
1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup plain flour, 3 medium bananas pealed and mashed, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, dash of cayanne pepper, 1/2 cup plain sugar, 1 stick butter, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup walunts-diced, 1/2 cup currants, 1/2 cup diced dried apricots (soak all your fruit/nuts in 2 tbsp brandy.) Put it all together and bake in a loaf pan.
That mixture made our old friend Bucky smile.
September 16th, 2009 at 3:45 PM
I forgot to mention adding a little splash of whole milk to thin things out if the mix won’t flow like thick lava into a standard teflon loaf pan. Bounce it around on the counter to even it all out in the 5″ x 9″ pan and then bake at 350 degrees for about an hour in my oven…yours might vary a bit.