Banana Bread

Though it has been too bitterly cold for the farmer's market and local produce, with the ice winds and the layers of snow decorating the landscape, I still keep my kitchen well stocked with an army of fruits and vegetables. Living by myself, I tend to be a bit over zealous with my shopping, and often end up with more fruits and vegetables than I am capable of consuming in the transient window of time before they spoil. With bananas, for me, that transient window is rather narrow; generally, I only enjoy peeling and eating them while they are still firm and only have just turned yellow. Thankfully, I have this delicious recipe for banana bread, which I have adapted from the 1969 edition of Betty Crocker. She may be a constructed image of the cult of domisticity, and a grand marketing ploy at that, but she does offer some mean appetizers, desserts, and entrees.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup mashed ripe banana

3/4 cup milk (I use whole)

1 large egg

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 cup or so of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (optional)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to taste

I mash the bananas first, in a large mixing bowl (this one is an olive green Pyrex bowl from the 1960s). I then add the milk, vanilla, and spices, then stir in the granulated and brown sugar.

Here is the flour, salt, and baking powder in a smaller mixing bowl (a yellow polka dotted Pyrex, also from the 1960s, just in front of my yellow and green Tupperware cannisters). I add the flour slowly to the banana mixture, incorporating it well into the wet mix. Somewhere in between, when the mixture becomes too dry and difficult to stir, I add the egg and also the vegetable oil.

Here, I have stirred in the chocolate morsels and the walnuts. Other nuts could be substitued, and I have considered opting for dried cranberries or cherries in lieu of the chocolate, but chocolate always seems to win out. Must be the anti-oxidants.

Pour the mixture into a greased and floured 9x5x3 inch loaf pan (or something about that size) and bake in 350 degree oven for about an hour, or until the bread passes the toothpick test.

Delicious slice of bread, which in my eagerness to eat, I made look rather unattractive and unphotogenic by breaking (featured here on my rose Melmac plates, again, from the 1960s, noticing any kitchen trends?).