Banana Bread

I bake, I cook, I craft, I create, I am not a food photographer. My pictures are ultimately horrible but the food tastes delicious. Don't judge my inability to take a decent photo and use that for the basis of your judgment on how awesome my recipes are! I digress :)

My favorite recipes are the ones that have a story behind them. I love when someone can say this was my great grandmothers recipe and 100 years later people still rave over it. Well this recipe has a short story... my Jr. High best friend, who is still my best friend today- we'll call her S, shared this recipe with me. It originally came from her ex-fiance's mom (Mrs. M)... where it came from before then I don't know but it is an amazing recipe! Moist, fluffy and banana-ie, just everything I want in yummy banana bread. This is the first I've tried with shortening and I think it makes a HUGE difference.

Banana Bread

1/2 Cup Shortening
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup Mashed Bananas (Approx. 2 Bananas)

1 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt

Optional: Chocolate Chips (I prefer dark chocolate, yum!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix by hand the first four ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Add the last 3 ingredients to the same bowl and mix by hand until combined. It will be somewhat lumpy DO NOT OVER MIX. Do not use hand mixer or a fancy shmancy Stand Mixer. I promise you if you do, you will regret it.

4. Grease or spray your loaf pan or mini loaf pan or mini muffin pan. Whatever you prefer. I have to say that I can't stand that I have to "nonstick" my nonstick baking pans... If I use a spray I wipe off whatever is not touched by batter otherwise you end up with sticky brown gross pans. Yuck.

5. Fill the pan of choice and bake! You can fill them 2/3 of the way or so.. they don't puff up like muffins because well it's a bread. This is when I add the chocolate, (if it's a big loaf I mix it all in with the rest of the stuff). I add a couple to each and then cover it with just a smidge of batter. It keeps the chocolate chips evenly distributed and for instance my almost 3 year old doesn't need a boat load of sugar so I add only one to each of his mini muffins. It's like a little surprise in the middle. :)

6. Cooking Times:
Loaf Pan (size is like a 9 by 5 or 8 by 4... whatever it's a loaf pan) 40-45 minutes.
Mini Loaf Pan 17-20 minutes
Mini Muffin Pan 10-12 minutes

7. Cool and Enjoy! Or cool briefly and enjoy it warm and delicious with a cup of coffee, tea or a large glass of milk!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing with you,
Leilani