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Momma Callie’s Banana Nut Bread with Honey ButterCook Time: 1 hr 10 min Ingredients Directions Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and put a rack on the middle shelf. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate small bowl, mash the bananas with a wooden spoon, leaving a bit of texture. In another large bowl, use a hand electric mixer or stand mixer to cream the 1/2 cup of butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add the dry ingredients and gently stir in pecans. Pour the batter into the pan and put on a sheet tray. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Slice and serve with Honey Butter. *Cook’s Note: To ripen bananas quickly, put them into a paper bag and fold down the top. The bananas should ripen in 2 days. |
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Editor’s Note: Molly Dunn runs a food blog titled “Clean Plate Girl ~ A college student’s love for food and other life adventures” at mollydunn.wordpress.com. As part of a new column highlighting notable bloggers on campus, as well as our ever-present desire to talk about good food, we are publishing an edited and updated excerpt from her blog here today.
By Molly Dunn
Assistant City Editor
While grocery shopping this past weekend, the banana stand seemed overwhelmingly packed with overripe bananas. Someone has to use them before they go completely bad, so I decided to take three and put them to good use. What better way than to make banana walnut bread?
So, I came home, searched the Internet for the perfect recipe to follow and I came across a true southern recipe: Momma Callie’s banana nut bread by The Neely’s on Food Network. Gina and Pat Neely host a cooking show, “Down Home with the Neely’s” where they prepare classic southern recipes. I love their recipes and I knew with one look at the ingredients that this was the one.
Banana nut bread is a childhood favorite of mine. There’s nothing better than melting some butter on a slice of warm banana nut bread and having it for breakfast, a snack, as a dessert or whenever you just feel like having a slice of comfort.
It must be all the memories of my mom making banana nut bread for my brother and me to eat at breakfast on a cool autumn morning that warms my heart and puts me at ease. I know that sounds a little over exaggerated, but you will understand once you eat this banana nut bread.
As all quick bread recipes go, I whisked together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set it to the side. Then it came time to mash the bananas. The trick with this process is to maintain some texture or chunks of very ripe banana when you mash them with a fork.
Leaving bits of banana makes the bread moist, fluffy and gives it a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. I used three large ripe bananas for this recipe.
In a separate large bowl, I beat a stick of softened unsalted butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar until creamy, then added the 2 eggs, one at a time. After I creamed the mixture, I added a 1/2 cup of sour cream, the mashed bananas and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Once all the ingredients were completely mixed together, instead of adding chopped pecans, I decided to add chopped walnuts.
After mixing the wet ingredients with the dry, the banana bread batter was ready to go into the loaf pans and bake for almost an hour. The recipe calls for an hour and 10 minutes, but mine were done in 45 minutes, so you’ll need to watch the bread as it bakes.
I just love this recipe so much. Banana nut bread always brings a smile to my face every time I eat it. So the next time you want to bake something that’s comforting and warm, bake some banana nut bread. You won’t regret it.
Do you have a blog you think we might be interested in? Send us your thoughts and suggestions at lariat@baylor.edu.
