When I moved out into the big scary world all by myself, my mom, who is a seriously excellent baker, gave me a bunch of recipes for things that she had made all through my childhood. One of the recipes was for the world's BEST banana bread.
I've made it many times since then and it typically lasts less than a day in my kitchen. However, since the last time I whipped it up, I've made some changes in the ingredients I'll include and the food I'll serve my family. So I didn't have a couple of things that go in this recipe.
To begin with, I don't cook with shortening anymore. Actually, shortening is not something I've ever really had around the house, but in the past I've substituted margarine. Now, though, I use margarine as sparingly as possible. So, hesitatingly, I decided to use coconut oil in place of the shortening this time.
The second change I made was to the peanut butter. I usually try to make my own rather than use the store bought kind. It's super easy to do: I just put shelled peanuts in the blender, sometimes add a little bit of sugar, and blend it for about 5 minutes until it turns itself into something spreadable. It's really yummy! But I still wasn't sure how well it would taste in my mom's recipe.
Well...I pulled my loaf pan out of the oven about 19 hours ago and this is what's left ...
It tastes exactly the same: Delicious!
Here's my mom's recipe with my changes:
Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup homemade peanut butter
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp milk
3 frozen overripe bananas, thawed
1 cup nuts, chopped
2 tsp almond extract
1. Cream sugar, coconut oil and peanut butter.
2. Add eggs.
3. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix until just combined.
4. Add remaining ingredients.
5. Pour into greased loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Happy baking!
