Brunch Stuff

I am not an avid baker.  In fact, I don’t bake at all.  I used to try but I just got frustrated so I finally decided that baking is something that I will forever allow others to do for me.  The exception to this rule is Banana Bread. Banana bread is so forgiving of a lack of exact measurement that even I can pull this one off. Even so, I don’t bake it often. My household goes through phases of favorite foods.  There are weeks when I can’t buy enough bananas so I ratchet up the volume I purchase to account for that demand then all of a sudden bananas are out of favor so we wind up with brown-spotted, slightly mushy fruit on the counter.  This is my calling to bake bread.

Ingredients

1 ¾ C flour
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 C softened butter or shortening
2/3 C sugar
¾ tsp lemon rind (sometimes I drop this)
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas (sometimes I use more if we have more and it’s just a little gooey and delicious)
½ to 1 C chopped walnuts or chocolate chips as you like (I used chopped apricots once – yum!)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in one bowl
Blend together the butter, sugar and lemon rind
Beat in the eggs
Beat in the banana
Fold in nuts or chocolate chips if using them
Grease a loaf pan with butter and pour in the batter
Bake for 1 hour (test with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean to be sure it’s done)