21st September 2011

Grandma’s Banana Bread

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Grandma’s Banana Bread

When I was growing up my mother would use up the old, wrinkly bananas to make her mother’s recipe for Banana Bread. Over the years this became one of my favourite recipes and still reminds me of my childhood and because it is super easy I make it whenever we have bananas past their good looking stage.

Very often the skin turns brown but inside the actual banana is fine but if my children saw the brown outside they would not eat the ripe fruit. So it traditionally became a way to use the bananas and not throw them out. To the point that sometime friends would call in for coffee and bring me their over ripe bananas and ask me to make a Banana Bread for them.

I make the recipe almost exactly as my mother and her mother before her used to make it. The only small change I make is to vary whether I add chopped walnuts, raisins or chopped dates for a special touch.

To make this recipe work you have to use an American cup measurement set and not weigh the ingredients.

In the USA we measure all flour, sugar, butter and liquid ingredients etc in cup measurements and although a cup = 8oz it does not work if you weigh the dry ingredients.

So for a 2lb loaf of Banana Bread you need:-

3 ripe bananas (as soft and brown as possible), 1 egg, 2/3c sugar, 2 cups Self Raising Flour. You can add up to ½ cup chopped walnuts, raisins or chopped dates.

Recipe:

Grandma's Banana Bread

Servings: 10 slices

Author: Heidi Roberts

Ingredients

3 brown bananas
⅔ cup sugar
1 medium egg
⅓ cup raisins or chopped walnuts or chopped dates
2 cups Self Raising flour

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F
Prepare your 2lb loaf tin. I use a liner otherwise grease and flour the tin
Peel the bananas
In a large bowl thoroughly mash the bananas
Add the egg and mix well
Add the sugar and mix well
This is the point when you can either leave it as it is or add about ½ cup of raisins and/or chopped walnuts. Chopped dates work really well too
Add the flour in two portions and mix well after each addition
Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf tin
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and et cool completely
Serve sliced with butter. (Can be toasted for a really delicious breakfast)
Enjoy!

This is the easiest recipe to make and if you don’t want to make a loaf it also makes great muffins. Just cook them a bit less for about a half hour.

Everyone who has tasted this Banana Bread loves it. Hope you, your friends and family love it too. If you make it I would love it if you could post a photo on instagram and tag me (@itsmeheidiroberts).