Banana Bread

Bananas are my favorite fruit and probably one of my favorite flavors too. I pretty much like anything banana flavored... ice cream, yogurt, snow cones. I've even had banana beer. YUM! And since bananas are my favorite fruit I buy them a lot. I like them best when they are just starting to get ripe... like still a little green on the peel. But unfortunately, when I'm grocery shopping I tend to overestimate the number of bananas I think I will eat. So inevitably, I always end up with a few bananas that are less than ideal for eating. (At least in my opinion they are.) Now I hate to be wasteful and since I can't seem to calculate the appropriate number of bananas I'll eat in a week, I have to do something with these leftover bananas...

Enter banana bread. The perfect solution for overripe bananas. I use a recipe that probably came from a cookbook (maybe Joy of Cooking?) but I simply know it as my dad's recipe. I have fond memories of him making and teaching me how to make banana bread. Who knows if he actually made it a lot, but in my mind it seemed like he did. 

And today, I had three bananas sitting on my counter calling out to me to make banana bread. And so I did. The one thing I did differently was bake it in mini loaf pans. I normally just make one large loaf, but I wanted to make mini loaves so I could give one away. But since I had never made banana bread in mini loaf pans before, I didn't distribute the batter correctly. I only used two pans, when I should have used three, so they turned into enormous mini loaves. But I'm sure no one will complain. 

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 ¼ teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening (5 1/3 tbsp)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 extra large egg
• 3 medium bananas (very ripe)

Directions:  

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In separate bowl, blend shortening and sugar. Add egg and bananas. Blend until smooth.

4. Add dry ingredients in three parts. Blend until smooth.

5. Pour batter into greased loaf pan.

6. Bake one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.