A loaf of delicious banana bread, freshly baked and out of the oven awaited my children on their return from school. I have baked this same recipe, since the day I got married. It comes from a cookbook, that I'm sure every young South African woman owns or will own .... The Complete South African Cookbook. My copy was given to me by my very dear granny, as a gift for my kitchen tea (do brides to be even have these anymore?) .... because of this fact, I treasure this cookbook even more. It's cover is now falling off, it's pages are stained, but not a week goes by ... 17 years later ... where I don't pull it out and use it.
It is truly a delicious snack, and so, I thought I'd share the recipe with you .... enjoy!!!
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large very ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 65ml water
- 5ml baking soda
- 7ml baking powder
- Cream butter and sugar together, until light and creamy
- Add mashed bananas, and mix until well combined
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition
- Sift flour and salt together over butter mixture. Stir together until well combined
- Dissolve baking soda in water. Once dissolved add to mixture together with baking powder
- Mix until well combined
- Pour into a well greased loaf pan
- Bake at 350 deg F for 1 hour
This is a great recipe to make if you have bananas to use up that are very ripe - my kids won't eat bananas unless they're firm ..... in this heat, they become very ripe, very quickly!!!
So, go ahead, and give it a try. I promise you, you wont be dissapointed!!!
EDIT - My mom has just told me that you can freeze bananas. They will need to be used for banana bread or muffins (they soften in the freezer), but the banana taste also intensifies in the freezer. What a great idea, to avoid having to throw them out or having to bake with them straight away!!! Thanks mom - I had no idea you could do that:-)
I don't know why but of all the banana goodies I do like, I never got into banana bread. And yes! freezing is a great way to save them for later...but the skins are harder to get off (at least for me)
ReplyDeleteI love this post...I love the you want to make your family happy :-)
Hahaha oh yes you can throw them in the freezer! I had been doing this for some time and when it came to moving day I must have found about 60 bananas stuffed into every nook and cranny in my freezer. Sad to say I had to toss all of them. My sister in law taught me to throw the over ripe ones in the freezer for safe keeping until baking day. I just pull them out and let them thaw for about 30 minutes and then cut off one end and squeeze em out into a bowl to be measured. I think they taste better in banana bread, than fresh ones do, too.
ReplyDeleteI had to come back and post this...just found out you CAN freeze bananas with their skin off. If you do it fast, they don't even turn. Now I've got several just waiting to be made into smoothies....and no messing with skins!
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