Whole Wheat Banana Bread

 

What do you do when you find a bag of frozen bananas in the freezer? You make banana bread! Or, at least I do. I had gotten a really good deal on bananas that were less than perfect, so I bought all that the store had. I had originally frozen them to make smoothies, but the kids got sick of them and I stopped making those for them. That also meant that I forgot about bananas until I was looking for something else in the freezer yesterday. Enter: Banana Bread.

Right now the West Coast is being slammed with a cold, wet storm. We’re getting a ton of rain and the wind is blowing like crazy (or at least it is at my house). I always bake some treats up when we have this kind of weather because I never know if our power will go out or not. Granted, it’s never out for long. But what if it was out for a while?? I don’t want my precious babies to be hungry for a snack and not be able to have one! That would be terrible. So, I made a couple loaves of this bread and the muffins from yesterday. You know, so we wouldn’t starve in the one hour that the power *might* go out….

I’m sure this is probably a pretty standard banana bread recipe, but it’s the one that my mom uses and pretty much the only one that I have ever used. The only thing I change about it now is to use wheat flour for some of the white. I’m telling you, having a grain mill has changed my life. It’s so easy to incorporate freshly ground flour into my recipes now. I don’t even think about it I just automatically reach for my grain mill and get to work!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3-4 bananas, smashed
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup unbleached white flour or all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup nuts or chocolate chips, optional

In a bowl, beat together the shortening and sugar. Add in eggs and mix well. Stir in bananas, flours, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined. Fold in nuts or chocolate chips. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

This loaf is very best if you can manage not to cut it until the next day. I know, I know- that’s hard to do but it’s worth it if you can possibly do it. This bread stays very moist and is dense without being heavy. So, so good. I have baked this in mini loaf pans and frozen it for gift giving as well. It freezes beautifully as a whole loaf, as slices or as mini loaves. You can add raisins, any kind of nuts, chocolate or peanut butter chips (my personal favorite!) or anything else you’d like.

Sometimes it the plain, sturdy, tried and true recipes that we crave the most. Banana bread makes your house smell so good while it’s baking! My only complaint about it is that it never lasts long, better make 2 loaves!