Ahhh, when last we parted I was about to try a new banana bread recipe. I looooove bananas. It’s no surprise really — I grew up as Anna Banana, so how could I not love them?
Anyway, the banana recipe was a success, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you. (Ok fine. I have selfish reasons for posting too — this way I won’t have to search through all of my banana bread recipes again, wondering which one I liked.)
But wait! While we’re in the kitchen, I thought you might like to see the cute new twine holder I got today!
Lisa had a really fun post on twine the other day and her cute little birdy twine holder caught my eye. Lisa kindly gave me a link and when I clicked over, it accidentally fell into my basket. I love birdies … I love twine … it was meant to be. I think it looks pretty cute on my kitchen counter.
Anyway, back to the banana bread. Banana bread is one of those things where everyone has their own favorite recipe. I’ve tried a lot of recipes over the years with varying degrees of success. I tend to lean toward recipes with sour cream or yogurt, but lately, I’ve had trouble with them — they never seem to get done in the middle. I found the recipe I used the other day in a cookbook I’ve had lying around for years. It’s a little different — a LOT of bananas, no sour cream or yogurt, and a tinch (that’s a teeny bit) of orange. It’s a very subtle orange flavor and it’s a really nice touch in this banana bread. Plus, it uses cake flour instead of regular flour, which gives it a pretty tender crumb.
Banana Bread
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
6 very ripe medium bananas, peeled and mashed
4 eggs, well beaten
1 Tbsp fresh orange juice
2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream sugar and butter until light. Add bananas, eggs, orange juice, and zest. Mix well. Sift together dry ingredients and fold into the banana mixture. Divide between two greased 9 x 5 – inch loaf pans. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes *, until firm in the middle.
Cool the loaves on wire rack for 1/2 hour before you remove them from the pans.
And the best part is that it makes 2 loaves — 1 for you and one to give away!
Have a good weekend!
XOXO,
Anna
*After 50 minutes, my banana bread was still too moist in the middle so I set the timer for 10 more minutes. That turned out to be too long, as you can tell from the pictures — the banana bread is a little too done on the outside (it was still really good though). Five more minutes would have been perfect!
