Every time I’ve made this bread and taken it in to work, my co-workers just rave over it. I’ve had several people ask me if I would make them an entire loaf, and I’ve had a couple of people tell me they’d pay me to make them a loaf. It definitely makes a great gift. Believe me, the recipients are quite appreciative.
Sometimes I’ll make a loaf for me and Kemal and then make a mini cake-sized one as a gift for someone at work. Here’s what the small cake-sized one looks like:
The other thing that’s great about this bread is that that you can slice it up and freeze each slice individually so you have something sweet on hand for those days when you just don’t have time to bake. It doesn’t take long at all to thaw out.
Okay, here’s the banana bread recipe I found and that I want to share with you. I make my bread almost exactly the same way except for few minor things. After greasing the loaf pan with butter, I sprinkle course sugar on top of the butter. That extra bit of sugar makes the bread extra yummy!!! I also use almonds instead of walnuts, and I just mix everything in one bowl.
Banana Nut Bread (Recipe Source: modified from: www.familyfriendlyfood.com)
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 2/3 cup sugar plus 2-3 tbsp sugar
- 1 stick butter
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp. milk
- 3 small bananas (about 1 cup), mashed
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup almonds, chopped
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease your loaf pan with butter and then take 2-3 tbsp of sugar and sprinkle it on the butter (I use a very course sugar.)
- Chop your almonds. (I use a chopper but you can also put them in a blender.)
- Melt the butter.
- Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl.
- Now add the eggs and beat them with the bananas.
- Add the butter, the 2/3 cup of sugar, the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and milk to the bowl with the eggs and bananas. Mix until blended but don’t over-mix.
- Mix in the chocolate chips
- Pour the batter into the greased pan.
- Scatter the almonds on top of the batter.
- Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The bread will be golden brown and you’ll know it’s done when you put a toothpick in it and the toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the bread cool about 10 minutes or so then you can take it out of the pan and place it on your serving dish.
