Banana Bread

Originally posted posted on November 12, 2005.

This is the recipe I use for banana bread. I’ve always loved banana bread, especially with walnuts. But the walnuts are optional if you have a nut allergy. As usual I used organic ingredients (bananas, eggs, vanilla, walnuts) where possible, but you can use non-organic stuff and make it cheaper.

I usually try to avoid using specialized gadgets for the web recipes, but using a hand mixer makes some of this a bit easier than mixing by hand.

Ingredients:	Cost to Make ($2.79 per Loaf):
2 – 3 very ripe Bananas (¾ pound) 2 large Eggs ½ cup Shortening ¼ cup Sugar 1 ½ tsp Vanilla 1 ¾ cups Flour 1 tsp Baking Soda ½ tsp Salt 1/8 pound Walnuts	33¢ Bananas 17¢ Eggs (83¢ if organic) 35¢ Crisco^® Shortening 43¢ Sugar ($1.38 32oz bag) 62¢ Vanilla ($4.99 2oz bottle) 23¢ All-Purpose Flour 2¢ Baking Soda 2¢ Salt 62¢ Walnuts ($4.99 per pound)

Basic Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300° (use an oven thermometer!)
Mash ripe bananas in a large mixing bowl.
Mix in beaten eggs with a hand mixer until blended.
Add sugar in gradually while beating with hand mixer.
Add in shortening (in small chunks) and vanilla, and beat some more with hand mixer.
Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt, then blend into batter.
Chop walnuts up some and mix into batter by hand.
Bake 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours at 300°.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Banana bread recipe

Our basic ingredients are some very ripe bananas, all-purpose flour, baking soda, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, shortening and walnuts.

Note: I bought some organic bananas fresh (the 3 were about ¾ pound) and let them sit on a shelf in my kitchen for about 7 days to let them get as “ripe” as you see here..

Mashing ripe bananas

To start peel the bananas, break them into smaller chunks, and mash them up in a mixing bowl with a potato masher.

Adding eggs to beaten bananas

Beat the 2 eggs and add them to the mashed bananas, then beat some with your hand mixer.

Adding sugar to bananas with hand mixer

Add the 1 ¼ cups of sugar to the mix, and beat some more with the hand mixer.

Adding shortening and vanilla to bananas

Then add in the ½ cup of shortening and 1 ½ tsp of vanilla extract, and beat some more with the hand mixer. (Your arm would be pretty tired by now mixing by hand, heh..)

Whisking together flour, baking soda and salt

In another bowl whisk together the 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda and ½ tsp of salt.

Mixing banana bread with hand mixer

Add the flour, baking soda and salt combination to the banana puree mixture and blend together with the hand mixer again. (You’re getting your money’s worth from the hand mixer, eh?)

Adding walnuts to banana bread

Chop the walnuts with a knife and add them to the batter.. Mix them in a bit by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Pouring banana bread batter into pan

Pour the whole mess into your favorite greased 9″ x 5″ bread pan.

Oven thermometer at 300°

Place into a 300° pre-heated oven and bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours (mine went closer to 1 ½ hours). You’ll know it’s done when a toothpick or sharp knife comes out clean when you poke it.

Note: If you don’t already have one, pick up an oven thermometer. My gas oven is a little old and can be anywhere from 25 to 50 degrees hotter than what the dial reads..

Banana bread loaf!