My mom makes the greatest banana bread ever. It’s moist, yet not too heavy, with a tantalizing rich banana flavor. However, until last night, I had never actually used my mom’s recipe. Instead, my mom makes my banana bread for me, in little 8 x 4 loaves that are perfectly sized for Mike and me. I realized just how spoiled I was when I pulled out my mom’s recipe and found that I had left off a crucial ingredient when I copied it down. Somehow I had a recipe for “banana bread” that didn’t include bananas.
One phone call later, I had the amount of the key ingredient and was ready to start baking. This recipe will yield either two 8 x 4 loaves or one 9 x 5 loaf, and keeps beautifully in the freezer. My mom’s recommended pan preparation technique is to grease both short ends of the pan with vegetable shortening, and then line the sides and bottom with a sheet of wax paper, leaving a few extra inches of wax paper on each side. This makes it oh-so-easy to remove your completed banana bread.
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup margarine, softened
- 1 ½ cups mashed bananas (3-4 bananas, depending on their size)
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 eggs
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cream sugar and margarine together in a large bowl until smooth. Add bananas, water, and eggs and mix until well combined. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into either two 8 x 4 loaf pans or one 9 x 5 loaf pan, prepared as indicated above. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes for 8 x 4 loaves or 55-60 minutes for a 9 x 5 loaf, or until loaves are browned and a cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaves comes out clean.
Holding both sides of the wax paper, remove loaves from pans and place on wire rack to cool completely. Peel wax paper from cooled loaves, tightly wrap, and store in refrigerator. If you’re not going to eat the bread within a day or two, bread can also be stored in the freezer and then thawed before eating.
