I guess I should document this here, as I often have to ask my mom for the recipe when I want to make it! This is our family banana bread recipe: rumored to be my maternal grandmother's, but my mom (whose memory is excellent) says her sister (my Aunt Barbara, who sadly passed away earlier this year) found the recipe in a women's magazine after returning from her honeymoon in Hawaii - must have been late 1950s. She had excellent banana bread there, and said this recipe came close.
My sister and I both entered this in our county fair in different years and won blue ribbons! We were in 4H clubs as kids, and entered food/crafts in the fair every summer. I have a vague memory of having something advance to the state fair one year - it might have been this, or maybe brownies? None of us can remember. Anyway, my mom had told me to add a note for the judges - and I'll include it here - that due to the higher sugar content in this recipe, it bakes up darker than many other banana breads. So don't worry if it seems to be overbrowning!
The original recipe uses shortening (Crisco) and that's what I used most recently. We have also made it with butter and it's good that way, but shortening is the classic recipe. I also highly recommend the addition of chocolate chips! If you're a nuts person you can add chopped nuts, or my aunt suggests dried cranberries - about 1 cup of "additions." But it's quite good on its own!
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 large very ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 1/4 cup sifted flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350. Cream shortening & sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Stir in mashed banana. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to banana mixture and blend just until mixed.
Pour into greased loaf pan, or 12 lined muffin tins. Bake loaf 1 hour, or muffins 25 minutes.
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