Banana Bread Bazinga

For the past year, I've had a hankering for banana bread. I love all kinds of cakey-breads: banana, poppy seed, lemon, blueberry, doesn't matter. Unfortunately, every time I want to make banana bread, I never had what I needed to make it with — not even the bread pans. My mother-in-law bought me these fabulous Farberware bread pans for Christmas, and I finally had everything I needed.

Well, except a a sieve. I purposely bought the sifter around Christmas to make banana bread (my instructions ask me to sift), and then, I've already lost it. Sigh.

Anyway, this is a recipe from my high school home economics teacher that I still keep in my recipe notecard collection from home ec (it includes a basic dough recipe, homemade pizza, monkey bread, etc.). I made it tonight, and it turned out sooooooo good, even though I didn't sift my dry ingredients, and even though I didn't grease my pans enough.

The key to the recipe is a trick from my mom: Before placing in the oven, sprinkle the loaves generously with sugar for a little razzle dazzle crunch.

Just thought I would share...I'm not a baker by any means, but it felt nice to bake something that didn't arrive at my house in plastic first!

Without further ado, here it is:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 cup bananas

1 1/2 cup sugar 

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mix. Add bananas and milk. Divide into two greased loaf pans — sugar the tops! Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes in medium-sized loaf pans. Cool on wire rack.

Enjoy!