Banana Nut Bread

I use my blog kind of like a cookbook, a way to keep all my recipes in one place so that I don’t lose the little scraps of paper I jot them down on.

This morning I got ready to make a loaf of this delicious Banana Nut Bread for my neighbor Amy as a congratulations on her new job. So I got my bread maker out and pulled up HomeSweetHomeOnWheels… No Banana Nut Bread recipe listed. Well crap! So then I had to go searching and luckily I found this guy among other random unorganized-ness in the filing cabinet (that I plan to make a slipcover for – against Allen’s wishes… but he’ll like it in the end!)…

I just added it to the recipe section so I will have it in the future for sure! But here it is if you’re curious…

1/2 cup buttermilk *

2/3 cup butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (3-4 bananas)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 2/3 cups flour, regular all purpose flour

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Put all these ingredients (minus the walnuts) into your bread pan. Select the “quick” bread cycle-this just means it doesn’t have a rise time. You’ll need to help the mixing process out… You don’t want lumpy clumps of flour – yuck! So help it mix up and get everything off the sides. My machine mixes for about 7 minutes then rests. This is when I add the walnuts, again helping out a little. Then it mixes again, and bakes for an hour and a half. Try not to burn your fingers when it’s finished, let it cool a little before you dive in!

*I have never used buttermilk in my life. It’s not something I just have in the fridge and I don’t plan well enough to buy it ahead of time. So a good substitute for buttermilk is 1 cup of whole milk + 1 tbs of white vinegar. I know it sounds weird but it works, I promise!