You have to believe me, I only bought a few bananas. The bananas were on sale, so of course I had to get some. How was I to know that they were going to go from green to yellow to brown in such a short time? OK, I admit it, I knew that would happen if we ate the apples ahead of the bananas. I tried to delay the inevitable by moving the bananas to the fridge when they had turned yellow but I now realise that it only worsened the situation. You know, out of sight, out of mind. Yes, those bananas got left in the fridge a little longer than they should have been. After several days in the fridge, the bananas had gone from overripe to very overripe.
The bananas had to go but I wanted to try a new recipe. I knew my sister Mindy has a tried and tested banana bread recipe so I sent out an SOS. She promptly sent me a picture of John Harper's Banana Nut Bread recipe. Looking at the picture of the cookbook page she sent, and all the smudges that came with it, one could tell that the cookbook was opened on that page a lot. I took that as a sign to give the recipe a go.
Mindy said that she lessens the sugar, uses coconut oil instead of shortening, and added that her kids don't like walnuts. The original recipe called for 3/4 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening. I followed Mindy's reduced sugar path and used butter, instead of either coconut oil or shortening. I used a bundt pan, instead of a loaf pan. It turned out well.
BANANA NUT BREAD1/2 c softened butter1/2 c sugar1 large egg4 teaspoon lemon juice2 cups flour1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt1 cup mashed (2-3) ripe bananas1 c walnuts, coarsely chopped1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat in egg and lemon juice.
4. In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Fold the mixture into the batter and blend well.
6. Stir in mashed bananas and walnuts.
7. Pour mixture into greased and floured bundt pan (or 9x4x3-inch loaf pan) and bake 60 to 70 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the centre of the pan comes out clean.
8. Turn out on a rack to cool.
(I've indicated 1 cup of walnuts in the recipe because I used the original 1/2 cup from the original recipe and felt that the banana cake could definitely use more walnuts.)
