Banana Bread

Sometimes I just want simple—where you mix all the ingredients in a bowl and put it in the pan. That’s what this banana bread is about. It comes from Recipes from the Heart (Sacred Heart Parish—where I grew up and went to school). This particular recipe is from Mary Amelong, however, I modified it. Some of it intentionally and other parts not so.

Here’s the original recipe with my version in parentheses.
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (I used 5 whole bananas and not sure what that came out to be cup wise.)
3 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg (I used ½ teaspoon freshly ground from the nut.)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup water or orange juice (I forgot this completely.)
1 cup pecans (I made candied pecans.)

Blend all ingredients. Pour in greased bundt pan. Bake at 375 for 1 hour.

So here’s what happened. I decided to make banana bread, went into the kitchen, gathered all the ingredients and boom, when it came time to get the eggs, I realized I didn’t have any. Okay, I did have some farm fresh ones from my friend Kim, but I refused to bake with them. One needs to eat farm fresh eggs straight up and not waste them in baking… unless of course you just have them coming out of the hens right and left and HAVE to bake with them. I find them precious and won’t bake with them.

I mashed my bananas and then added all the other ingredients on top of the bananas (except for the eggs) figuring it would keep the banana from turning brown and yucky while I ran out to the store.

After taking a look in the mirror, with sweat dripping from my forehead, I decided there was no time to doll myself up and went out—no make up, hair all kind of crazy, unpainted toenails, bleached stained shirt. I was sure I’d run into someone since that usually happens when you are looking your finest. I kept my sunglasses on, dashed in, grabbed two dozen eggs, snatched a loaf of bread off the shelf and some Tea Tree Oil for that fungus on my big toe. The lines were long. I acted casual as if I was dolled up, going out for tea. The lady in front of me picked up the chocolate covered almonds, looked them over and put them back. I dare not touch them because they’d end up in my gut and did I tell you I’m trying to lose a few pounds? Why am I making banana bread? Oh yeah, I have a husband with a sweet tooth.

By the time I made it back home, I thought I had everything in the bowl except the eggs, so I plopped them in, stirred up the mixture and put it in the pans. At this point, I’m still not remembering the water.

Backing up a little, before I left for the store I got on Katie’s blog for those candied pecans that she had in her banana bread. I read the recipe, but while cooking the pecans, it didn’t seem right, so I added another tablespoon butter. What could it hurt? Seeing that it wasn’t working, I then added more sugar. It seemed like there was enough cinnamon in there for seven Danish loafs, so I skipped adding more cinnamon. I threw in more pecans. After a good five minutes and realizing it wasn’t going to work, I dumped it in the bowl and started all over—following Katie’s directions exactly.

Here's the first batch of pecans:

Since I now had some extra pecans that turned into some concrete nightmare, I chopped them up in my little food processor.

I had more than enough batter to fill my Demarle bundt pan and put the rest in a loaf pan—you know the kind of pan that the bread should go in. I sprinkled the top with brown sugar (a trick I learned from another banana bread recipe) but this time I decided to add those chopped candied pecans.

Pecans. Pecans. Oh, I’ll make some Pecan Pie Muffins from Paula Deen’s cookbook. They are easy and I’ll be able to do something with these candied pecans. Paula’s recipe calls for plain ole pecans, but who knows, maybe I’ve created a masterpiece. I’ll save that for another blog.

All in all… the taste of the banana bread was good, but it was a bit chewy. But I like chewy. If you toast it and add some butter, well it’s even better. But what’s not to like adding butter?