It’s going to snow here again which means the supermarkets will be like the Mall on black Friday. Yep, I’m going shopping too, although I usually try to avoid the place when I know people will be stocking up on groceries to last until next New Years because, you know, the snow is coming and we’re never going to get out of the house. But I haven’t been to the store since before year end and I am clean out of stuff.
Except for bananas. I always buy too many and then wind up making banana bread which I usually freeze and then give away every other Tuesday when our local Hadassah hosts a Tea Party — NOT a political one I can assure you — for cancer patients and their caregivers at our local hospital.
So after I use up the browning bananas for the bread I will have to put new bananas on the list along with milk, fruit, sweet potatoes and everything else I’ll need until next New Years.
Here’s a good recipe for a large Banana Bread that will make at least 12 servings. You can freeze it (or freeze half). Sometimes I add chocolate chips, sometimes raisins.
Banana Bread
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup vegetable shortening
1-3/4 cups sugar
4 large very ripe bananas, mashed
4 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips or raisins, optional
1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8-cup bundt pan. Mix the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the vegetable shortening and sugar at medium speed until well blended. Beat in the bananas. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture and beat the ingredients until smooth and well blended. Fold in the chocolate chips, raisins and/or nuts. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the bread from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes in the pan. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely.
Makes one bread serving 12-18