Supernatural Botanicals

I’ve been making banana bread since 5th grade.  That’s also the year I begged my mom to teach me how to do the laundry.  I was born with domestication in my bones, evidently.    I have literally been making this recipe since I was 10 years old, so it has deeply-rooted memories of home to me.

Home smells like freshly baked banana bread.  I’ve baked thousands of loaves of banana bread.  When you stop by my house for a cup of coffee, odds are, I’ll make a banana bread while we are gossiping around the kitchen island.

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°.  With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4″ x 8″ inch loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

*Note:  There are so many variations you can add to this, such as walnuts, banana chunks, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, sliced almonds, coconut, dried cherries, etc., in addition to various icings and glazes on the top.  For a quick icing, purchase cake icing, and microwave in its container for 30 seconds (or until pourable), pour over loaf of banana bread.  Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of icing.  I can tell you from experience, this brings ooohhhs and aaahhhhs.

Recessionista Tip:  Don’t throw those bananas out just because they are starting to get brown spots on the peel.  You can throw the bananas in the freezer in their peel until you are ready to use them.  The peels will turn black in the freezer, but the bananas will be delicious and ripe on the inside.  Thaw bananas before using to make numerous recipe such as banana bread, banana nut muffins, banana pancakes, smoothies, chocolate dipped frozen bananas, etc.  Utilize everything that you have on hand and become a Recessionista Diva!  In this economy, no wasting is allowed.