Banana Nut Bread

I had some bananas laying around and thought I would give a new recipe a try. Everyone in our house loves banana bread. I found this recipe to be interesting because it is actually called Vegetable-Nut-Bread. I found this in an article on Yahoo! called Sneak in Veggies! 7 Ways to Trick Anyone (Yourself Included) into Eating Greens. It had some great ideas in it. I am as guilty as a lot of people when it comes to eating my veggies. I do it, but do not always like it. For me reading recipes is like reading a feel good book. I love to see what others are putting together. I would consider myself to be a cookbook junkie. This I have my mom to thank for, she had a love for cooking and cookbooks as well. I collect all kinds, but my favorites are the ones that have a story behind the recipe or the type of food. One of my favorites is called Cajun-Creole Cooking by Terry Thompson. It tells the story behind the food, about the people, when and why it's served. This leads me to my second favorite type, the ones from small communities. The older books that are from the area I grew up in contain a lot of food I grew up on, I have very fond memories of this.

This bread was great hit in my house. I hope you try it and let me know what you think! I will post the original recipe after mine for anyone that would like to give that a try as well! I plan on trying it, again, I just used what I had on hand.

Banana Nut Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour (I use half whole wheat, half all-purpose)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup orange or apple juice or milk
1 egg
1 cup banana (about 2 banana's), mashed with fork
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan butter or spray it with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.

In another bowl whisk together the juice, butter, and egg. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula just enough to moisten; do not beat and do not mix until the batter is smooth. Add the bananas and the nuts, then pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for about an hour, or until the bread is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Makes 1 loaf.




Vegetable-and-Nut Bread

For this loaf, I used grated raw sweet potato and chopped walnuts. You could alternatively bake the batter as muffins: Prepare as directed, then divide among 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups and bake at 400°F for 20 to 30 minutes. Adapted from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman.

2 cups all-purpose flour (I use half whole wheat, half all-purpose)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces
3/4 cup orange or apple juice or milk
grated zest of an orange or lemon
1 egg
1 cup any raw fruit or vegetable: small berries left whole, anything else peeled and grated or chopped (I used grated sweet potato)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with butter or spray it with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a fork, pastry blender or your fingers, until there are no pieces bigger than a small pea. (You can use a food processor for this step, which makes it quite easy, but you should not use a food processor for the remaining steps or the bread will be tough.)

In another bowl whisk together the juice, zest and egg. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula just enough to moisten; do not beat and do not mix until the batter is smooth. Fold in the fruit and the nuts, then pour and spoon the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for about an hour, or until the bread is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Makes 1 loaf.