We are ramping up for a week long vacation at the beach. Which means we have to use up all the fresh produce in the house before we leave. I had a bunch of bananas to tackle so I figured I would make some banana bread to freeze and take on vacation. I don’t really have a go to banana bread recipe so had to dig into my cookbooks. About 6 cookbooks in and no luck. I decided to pull out my long neglected, but reliable cookbook, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Love a cookbook with a built in bookmark, looks like the last recipe I used it for was blueberry pie. The pages are aged beautifully with food and you can see the book has been mostly used for baking recipes.Growing up we had a hutch in the breakfast room with a lot of cookbooks in it. There were a few I used all the time; this Fannie Farmer one, A Julia Child one, and The Better Homes cookbook (or maybe it was Betty Crocker, or both). The book I have was my mom’s, it is the eleventh edition from 1965. Amazing to think this book has been in publication since 1896. Looks like it came from the library book sale. Everyone has Fannie to thank for introducing the standard cup and spoon measreuments. I love the opening quote;
“But for life the universe were nothing; and all that has life requires nourishment.”
~Fannie Merritt Farmer
Anyway, I found a pretty standard banana bread recipe. I like the layout of the recipe.
Banana Nut BreadSome like to add 2 tablespoons melted butter to the batter.Mix in bowl3 ripe bananas2 eggsSift together2 cups flour3/4 cup sugar1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon baking sodaAdd to the first mixture. Add1/2 cup nut meats, coarsely choppedStir well. Put in a buttered loaf pan 9 by 5 inches.Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Who am I to argue with most people, I included the butter. Well the kids smelled the bread and broke away from what they were doing to check it out. Needless to say, the bread will not be making it to vacation. I made zucchini bread instead, waiting this time until they were not around to smell it.
That's my banana bread recipe too. I usually double the walnuts and I don't add the butter. My first Fannie Farmer was a wedding present in 1961. Not sure when that one fell apart. My current one is from 1983 and the spine is badly wounded – taped up and cracked in several spots. It is easy to find the banana bread recipe as there is dried up batter all over it. When I opened it just now it had a marker (a Grey Goose Martini recipe) in the page for Roast Chicken which I made last week. It is the most used cookbook in this house for the basice.
I so wish I had a fannie farmer cook book – it'll be the first thing I get my kiddos when they fly the coop.
Excellent! I was hunting for a banana bread recipe, and this was highly rated, so I made it but baked it in loaf pans (made 2 good size loaves). Baked at 350 for 1 hour. It was a hit with the man, and his kids, too!
Excellent. I lost my favorite banana bread recipe five years ago (how does that happen?). This has become my favorite…I think it is actually better.
Making some more once the temps are cool enough to heat the oven!