Austin Supper Club: Banana Bread

Got a few bananas that are just a little too ripe to eat? This is a perfect excuse to make banana bread.

This is one of those types of quick breads (breads that don't require yeast) that's perfect to make on cold rainy days. We don't get too many out here in Central Texas, but today I make do by making the comfort food in honor of the weather we never see enough of.

"Banana bread first became a standard feature of American cookbooks with the popularization of baking soda and baking powder in the 1930s, appeared in Pillsbury's 1933 Balanced Recipes cookbook,^[2] and later gained more acceptance with the release of the original Chiquita Banana's Recipe Book in 1950.^[3]"

^-Wikipedia

Courtesy of Simply Recipes, this is one of those classic friend-of-a-friend style recipes that you end up holding on to and making again and again. The original recipe suggests using a cup of sugar, but I reduced it to 3/4 of a cup and think it tastes perfect.

INGREDIENTS

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

First pre-heat the oven to 350.

Take some unsalted butter and coat the inside of a loaf pan.
This will help get the loaf to release out in one nice shot.

Pour 1/3 cup of melted butter over 3 or 4 bananas in a large bowl...

Then work out some aggression by mashing the bananas into a mushy pulp.

Add the sugar, the egg, vanilla.
Sprinkle the baking soda and a pinch of salt on top, then mix it in.

Add the flour as the last step and mix everything together.

Pour the mixture into the buttered bread mold.

Some recipes tell you to mash the bananas into a fine paste.
Me, I like chunks of banana in the finished product.
This may be some kind of sin in culinary schools, but screw it. I like the chunks.