I peeked in my freezer the other day and found a couple packages of frozen, smashed bananas. I had tucked them in there awhile ago with the intention of making banana bread. What a great find! I pulled them out and the house soon was smelling like banana bread!

Since I had several packages, I decided to fix up my basic banana bread recipe with some extras on two of the loaves. We had Good Banana Bread, Better Banana Bread and Best Banana Bread. At least, that’s my evaluation.

Good Banana Bread

My husband likes his food in the most basic form possible. He prefers this banana bread over the others because it’s simple, moist, flavorful, banana, bread. This is the basic banana bread recipe below and I do agree with him, it’s yummy!  Warm, with some butter on that slice … mmmmm that’s good stuff!

I will admit, we’ve been known to sit at the kitchen table with a pot of fresh coffee and eat an entire loaf.

Better Banana Bread

My husband gave this loaf his approval, but he’s still loyal to his favorite (see above!). I had a container of cinnamon sugar sprinkles in the cupboard. The original intention for those sprinkles was that they would be topping whipped cream on a fancy coffee drink. I’m not sure we ever used them that way! I had just enough in the container to cover the batter on the second loaf of banana bread I baked.

Once the bread baked, the cinnamon sugar sprinkles coated the top of that loaf, just like you see at the bakery! I was excited by that! I like my baked goods to look pretty! The added spice gives this banana bread a great flavor, too!

Best Banana Bread

This variation was my favorite of the three loaves! I’m one of those people who likes to load up my bread and muffins with all kinds of goodness. This variation included some flaked coconut and cherries. I know that sounds a little unusual, but you have to trust me on this one! The cherries helped make this loaf extra moist!

The coconut added a wonderful layer of sweetness as well as a bit of moistness and a whole lot of tropical flair. This loaf was almost too close to cake to be called “bread”, but since I want to eat it for breakfast, I’m sticking with the bread label.

Am I the only one who thinks cake for breakfast is just a bit too decadent?

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

Basic

• 1/2 c. Shortening
• 1 c. Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 3/4 c. mashed Bananas
• 1 1/4 c Flour
• 3/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Extra Special

• 1/4 c. Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

or

• 1 c. flaked Coconut
• 1 c. Cherries

Recipe Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Use a large mixing bowl.
3. Cream the shortening and sugar together.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between eggs.
5. Stir in the mashed banana.
6. (if you’re using the coconut and cherries, mix them in now.)
7. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
8. Pour batter into loaf pan.
9. (if you’re using the sprinkles, shake them evenly over top the batter.)
10. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
11. Check for done-ness at 50 minutes, and every 5 minutes after until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

Frozen Bananas?

Let me go back to the whole, found the bananas in the freezer comment from the beginning of this column. That’s a trick I learned a long time ago, to help my grocery budget stretch. I usually have a bunch of bananas on the kitchen counter for snacking. My kids were pretty good about eating the bananas before they turn too brown. My husband hasn’t met a banana that turns brown (he eats them so quickly!).

However, there would be times when my husband was out of town or the kids ate other snacks and my bananas would cross into that brown phase of banana ripeness. I know that they are extra sweet when ripened to the brown stage, but I just can’t bring myself to eat a brown banana.

I also have a very difficult time just throwing away food. Because in my book, that’s just like throwing away money. And I don’t know anybody who wants to do that! In an effort to keep from wasting my hard earned grocery money, I made banana bread out of those brown bananas. The family eats up the bread, and we’re all happy.

But what to do when you have more brown bananas than you can manage to turn into banana bread? Or what if you don’t have time to make banana bread with those brown bananas?

I peel the bananas and break them in half, then place one or two bananas in a plastic zip top bag. I pop those bags in the freezer and I’ve got bananas for bread baking on another day.

These bananas are good for baking, because once a frozen banana thaws, it’s pretty mushy. That makes them perfect for smashing right in the bag and adding to the bread batter. I’ve found that usually one large or two medium bananas equal about a cup of smashed banana which is exactly what’s required for this basic banana bread recipe.

These bananas are also great for making smoothies. My daughter usually beats me to the stash of frozen bananas when she’s in a smoothie making mode.

What is your favorite way to use up old Bananas?

 

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