Grammy’s Best Ever Banana Bread

Banana bread is great for snacks or to have on hand for a quick breakfast. This banana bread recipe is super moist and makes three loaves. You can serve one now and stick two back to pull out later when you’re busy. And fortunately, it freezes beautifully!

I’ve tried lots of recipes for banana bread through the years. For some reason I thought I would find a recipe better than the one my mother used to make. I was wrong.

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But I still kept on trying those other recipes, feeding them to my family, and being met with the same response, “This is alright, but it’s not as good as Grammy’s.”

So I’d try another recipe.

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Finally, after making yet another mediocre banana bread, I decided to make my mother’s recipe – which believe it or not, I’d never made. I’d eat hers (and so would the rest of my family) and think, “This is SO good!” But then I’d go home and bake something else.

But not any more. The other day I had some bananas that were desperately crying out to be used (and the family was loudly complaining about the fruit flies as well) so I decided that I the time had come to see if I could make her recipe as good as she did.

As I was making the batter I kept asking myself, “This isn’t a hard recipe. Why haven’t I made it before?”

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Who knows why we do (or don’t do) things sometimes. I’d probably built it up in my head as some difficult recipe that I’d bungle – and then be embarrassed when it wasn’t as good as we all remembered. I’m probably not the only person who has been hesitant to try my hand at cooking something that Mom or Grandma (or mother-in-law) made because of worry that ours wouldn’t measure up.

Fortunately, it was delicious.

So I’m officially finished with searching for banana bread recipes. I have to admit that I feel a little like Dorothy when she realized that she’d had the power to return home all the time she’d been in Oz. Here I’d been trying other recipes when I had access to the best one all along. Silly me.

Grammy’s Banana Bread Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 loaf pans. I use Pyrex loaf pans  but metal ones should work fine.

Cream together:

• 1 cup butter (which is 2 sticks)
• 3 cups sugar

Add 4 eggs to this and blend together.

Alternately add:

• 1 cup buttermilk with 1 teaspoon baking soda mixed in (if you don’t have buttermilk you can just add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to the milk and let it sit for a couple of minutes)
• 4 cups four
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Once all of the above ingredients are combined, add:

• 2 cups mashed bananas
• 2 cups chopped nuts (I use pecans – but I have pecan trees in my yard)

Bake for 1 hour and 40 minutes till done. I always start checking early since different ovens seem to vary somewhat in how hot they get). Let bread cool before turning it out of the pans.

Bread freezes wonderfully and is just as good once it’s thawed.

This is amazing spread with warm butter and served with a glass of milk. After years of straying and trying other recipes, I’m finished looking.

My kitchen essentials

1. I have used my Pyrex loaf pans for years. I originally had a set of 2 and found that I used them so much when baking breads that I got a second set.
2. I got my Sunbeam electric mixer as a wedding gift from my grandmother and it is still running just as great as the day I first used it. I know there are more expensive, fancier models out there, but this is a great product at a very reasonable price point and will serve the needs of most cooks.
3. We probably pull at least one of our Pyrex measuring cups out to use every day. Measuring cups like these are for measuring liquids (you can put dry ingredients in them but you may end up a little “off” since you can’t scrape the top for a totally accurate measure).
4. A good set of cooling racks allows cooler air to circulate around the pan once you take something out of the oven. I like this set because at 11×17 they’re big enough that you don’t have to put two little ones side by side.

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Let me know what you think. I  wondered if cinnamon would make it any better so if anyone decides to tinker with the spices in the recipe please let me know.

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This pantry inventory sheet is also available in my store to help you keep track of what ingredients you have on hand. It makes it loads easier to know what you need to buy when you know what you’ve already got in stock. Go take a look here. You’ll find other products as well.

Does anyone have a recipe that they’ve put off making? Surely I’m not alone.