Banana Nut Bread

When I was a kid, my mother’s freezer always had black, frozen bananas in it.  Now, in turn, my freezer always has black, frozen bananas in it.  It’s a combination of the fact that I always have bananas laying around that don’t get eaten and the fact that I’m always intending to make banana bread.

Banana bread is an easy, healthy snack that keeps for a few days and is appropriate any time of the day.  And, the recipe is very adaptable.  I used pecans, but you can use any nut.  Or, if you don’t like nuts, you can leave them out entirely and this is still a delicious bread.

While I always use frozen bananas in this recipe, as a way to use and eat all the bananas we buy, you can absolutely use fresh bananas.  If you do decide to use frozen bananas, you can go ahead and chop them and mix them in while they’re frozen.  By the time you’re done adding in all the other ingredients, they’ll be thawed.

Finally, I am going to take a last opportunity to plug silicon bakeware.  For cupcakes, bunt cakes, and loaves, this is really the best bakeware.  While I was making this, I was watching Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network (a weekend favorite in the Rosemond-Hoerr household), and one woman was making bunt cakes.  She pulled the cake-removal off perfectly, but the stress that she (and the judges) had about that moment was palpable.  And totally avoidable, if you ask me.

Banana Nut Bread

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

3 ripe bananas (frozen or fresh), diced

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or other nut)

1 tsp salt

2 cups flour

Peel and dice your bananas, and chop your nuts.

One by one, whisk together the ingredients, in the order that they’re listed.

Bake at 400* for 60 minutes.  Let cool and serve.