banana bread

This is a family recipe and I remember many good times in the kitchen as a little kid, with my mom whipping this up in the Kitchen-Aid. I wasn't tall enough to see over the counter in the big, whirling metal bowl but I knew that it's contents were always delicious, and if I was lucky that day - I'd get a spoonful of the batter =) Banana bread was my favourite, topping cookie dough!

The secret is to use overly ripe bananas: I'm talkin' brown, slimy bananas. They have the most flavour. My mom usually would wait til they were pretty brown then stick them in the freezer until she had time to make the bread. Yesterday, we just had some really ripe nanners kickin' around so I used those.

Obviously, I also veganized the recipe... Earth Balance wasn't around 50 years ago.
The WORD "vegan" wasn't even in existence until 1944!
Anyways, this bread is truly delicious, it's crispy on the top and over-loaded with nuts and cinnamon, while the bread itself is SUPER moist and flavourful. MMM! You can make it fairly healthy too!

Moist Banana Bread: makes one loaf 

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup vegetable "shortening"

1 cup brown sugar/raw sugar or other sweetener 

1 t cinnamon and nutmeg mix

1/2 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 1/4 cups flour 

2 Tb ground flax mixed with 1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together until you have a pretty smooth batter. Try it! Yummaaayy. Pour it into a loaf pan.

Now if you want to totally step up the whole game: roughly mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 t cinnamon, 1 Tb olive oil and 1/3 cup chopped pecans. Sprinkle this on top of the batter in the loaf pan. Bake for about 40 minutes, doing the tooth pick test to make sure it's ready. Let it cool for around 20 minutes and then slice and enjoy with loved ones!