When we have overly ripe banana’s at our house we never throw them away. Even if they’re super brown and mushy! I throw them in the freezer and save them for a smoothie or I make Banana Bread! This is a version of my Mom’s Banana Bread. The original has cinnamon in it, 1/2 cup vegetable oil and no nuts (cus’ my brother was allergic to nuts). The vegetable oil makes it more like a moist cake, so this is a simpler recipe and it still tastes as good as the original, maybe even better cus’ it’s got nuts! 🙂
Growing up my Mom and my Lola (Filipino Grandma) were always baking, cooking or prepping something in the kitchen. It was their time together. They would make Pandesal, which is a Filipino breakfast bun, Ensemada (filipino sweet bread rolled like a cinnamon bun, with butter and sugar on top), Empanadas (meat pies), Lumpia (Pork Spring Rolls)… The list goes on. There was always someone cooking in the kitchen. I grew up mixing dough, chopping string beans, peeling carrots and potatoes for them. I was always stealing bits of raw dough and eating it. “Hah! No good!!”, my Lola would say. The smell of yeast and bread dough is totally nostalgic for me! It reminds me of my Lola and how she would loudly slap the dough on the kitchen table, roll it out and make buns. She’d turn on the oven light and place the buns under the light to let them rise one last time. I can see her slowly shuffling to the telephone to call her friend, wearing her green flower duster, while she waited for the buns to rise.
Ingredients
- 3 very ripe bananas, peeled
- 1/3 cup of melted butter
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- Optional, 1 cup toasted walnuts.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Beat one egg in a medium size bowl. Add 3 bananas and mash them with a fork. If your bananas are frozen you can defrost them in the microwave for 30 seconds or until soft enough to mash. Add melted butter. Add sugar, add vanilla extract and mix the wet ingredients together.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix the dry ingredients together.
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
In a frying pan, put 1 cup of walnuts and toast on low. Stir nuts every few seconds. Don’t let them burn. When they’re hot and a darker brown, put about 3 tablespoons of the toasted nuts in a clean bowl. Put the rest of the nuts in your mixture.
Stir nuts into dough. It’ll be a sticky, goopy consistency.
Butter a standard size loaf pan. (Optional. Place 2 strips of parchment paper horizontally across the pan, so the bread will come out easier)
Pour dough into loaf pan and sprinkle leftover toasted walnuts on the top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an hour. At 50 minutes check if it’s ready by taking it out of the oven and sticking a toothpick in the centre. If the toothpick comes out clean and not goopy then your bread is done.
Amanda is a writer, photographer, videographer and a content creator with a passion for sharing stories. With her family of 5, they share experiences, tips and ideas that empower Moms to make memories with their families right here in British Columbia.
