Banana Bread

The recipe I use for banana bread has been around awhile.  I made it the first time in school during a home economics class.  We've tried a number of other recipes over the years but this one is our favorite.  A couple of years ago my mom sent me the original mimeographed recipe from high school.  It obviously has drips and smears on it from years of use.  Mom laminated it, drips and all, to keep it from getting any worse. 

First you will need to collect your ingredients.  You will need flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, eggs, butter or margarine, vanilla, milk, lemon juice and bananas.  I will share the exact ingredients at the end of this post.

One of the ingredients listed is sour milk.  I do this first, measuring my milk into the measuring cup and adding a few drops of lemon juice.  You will also need 3 mixing bowls.  One for wet ingredients, one for dry ingredients and one for mashing bananas.

The largest bowl gets the butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Blend them thoroughly.  I used a hand mixer for this tonight because I was working on a triple batch of banana bread. Most of the time I just mix it up by hand.

Next measure out your dry ingredients.  Flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  The actual recipe calls for a lot of sifting.  I don't do that.  I have wondered over the years if all the extra steps in this recipe were to teach us all the techniques back in high school. 

Then mash your bananas in the 3rd bowl with a bit of lemon juice to keep them from browning.  Normally I mash bananas with a fork but since I had the mixer out already I used it tonight.  This calls for 2 bananas for each recipe.  We like extra so I add an extra banana to each batch.

Now you will dump your measuring cup of sour milk into the large mixing bowl and mix it into the wet ingredients.

When you add the sour milk your batter will get kind of a lumpy look like it is separating.  This is ok.

The next step is to alternate adding your bananas and flour mixture to the batter and only stirring as much as you need to.  You don't want to over beat.  I'm not super careful with this.  I usually add 1/2 the bananas and then 1/2 the flour and repeat.

When your batter is all mixed up, pour into greased loaf pans.  I fill about 2/3 full.  Bake at 350 degrees until done and lightly browned.

This is the end result.  Yummy!


Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sour milk (add a few drops lemon juice to fresh milk to make it sour.)

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 bananas

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In a separate bowl mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.  Beat until well mixed.  Add milk and mix.

Mash bananas well and have them ready to add to the butter sugar mixture alternating with the flour. Stir only as much as necessary.

Pour mixture into a well greased pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Remove from pan while still warm.  Bread can be frozen to be served at a future date.