Over the years, I have given many loaves of this recipe as holiday gifts, and I have been asked for the recipe. This is a moist quick bread, full of banana flavor, that is easy to make. Just wait for the bananas to reach the right stage of ripeness
The secret to this banana bread is to ripen the bananas until they are very soft and the skin is WRINKLED ANDVERY BLACK! This takes about a week to ten days. And the banana fragrance will permeate the entire kitchen.
The photos show the ripening stages: market fresh, beginning to ripen, and baking-ready ripe.
Assemble and measure the Ingredients You need for the recipe first!
Preheat the oven to 325°
Grease and lightly flour 1standard loaf pan or 3 mini loaf pans. Set aside,
Have all ingredients at room temperature.
Ingredients:
Banana Bread Ingredients:
- ½ cup Crisco (Great Aunt Em only used Crisco)
1 cup granulated sugar - 2 eggs large
- 3 medium to large, very ripe mashed bananas, about ¾ + cup if using small bananas.
- 1 ¼ cup sifted flour
- ¾ tsp. Soda
- ½ tsp. Salt
- Optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans.
Again: do this first! Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and lightly flour one standard loaf pan or 3 miniature loaf pans. Sift together flour, salt, and soda. Set aside.
MIXING the Banana Bread;
- Cream Crisco and sugar until light and fluffy.
- . Crack an egg into a small bowl to prevent the shell from dropping into the batter. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Snip the bud end of each banana off and squeeze directly into the creamed mixture. Stir in bananas.
- Add the sifted flour mixture all at once. On low speed, mix flour into the creamed mixture ONLY until no flour is visible.
- Pour the banana bread mixture into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes in a standard loaf pan, or 25-30 minutes in miniature pans, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Insert a table knife between the bread and the pan. Slide around the edge of the pan to loosen the bread. Remove the bread from the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack until completely cool.
- Slice and serve. Can spread the banana bread with a mixture of cream cheese and honey, honey and butter, or plain butter.
Store bread in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for about a week. Or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put into a freezer bag for freezing. Can freeze for about 3 months.
To serve after freezing, let the wrapped loaf(s) sit on the counter to thaw until they reach room temperature. Slice and serve.