Last summer, I was invited to stay at a friend’s lakeside cottage. We were served a banana bread for breakfast that was moist, had a fine crumb, and a deliciously strong banana flavor. I love this quick-bread and I bake a number of different versions, but this is the best. Katie Quinn shares her recipe:
“My grandmother Kathryn Waugh Anderson was a wonderful cook and especially liked baking (from scratch, of course). When I was young, she taught me how to blend ingredients for cakes and breads and how to roll out a pie crust. I remember sitting at the kitchen table (maybe age 5-7) blending butter and sugar while my grandmother told me funny stories about what my siblings and I did when we were little. I still have many of her handwritten 3×5 recipe cards, including chocolate cake made with coffee and buttermilk, lemon pudding, and the family favorite: banana bread. It was my grandmother’s recipe, but my mother made it frequently, as did my youngest brother, Bill, and myself.”
Ingredients
1 stick butter (4 ounces)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas (overripe, of course), mashed
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup flour (218 grams)
Instructions
9-inch loaf pan, buttered and lined with parchment paper
Bake at 300º; 1 1/4 hours
- Preheat the oven to 300°.
- Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.
- Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs one at a time.
- Mix in the mashed bananas.
- Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined and pour into prepared pan.
- Bake for around 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the bread springs back when pressed lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
I really want to bake Kathryn Anderson’s banana bread, but I do not have a mixer for blending the butter and sugar to become light and fluffy. Can I melt the butter and add sugar? Thanks!
Hi Roy,thanks for your interest. The best thing to do is let your butter come to room temperature; soft but not oily. Then cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon. Cheers, Lisa
Thanks for the advice. I followed the recipe this morning and make a banana bread loaf with a slight modification of adding a 1/3 cup of chopped fresh pecans for a house guest. Our guest raved about the banana nut bread and we enjoyed it as well for its full-bodied flavor and delectable moistness. Thank you for posting this delicious recipe!