Janet’s Banana Bread

(photo found along with recipe, here)

Friday afternoon found me lunching with two of my dear friends, Janet and Katie.  I met J & K way back in Junior College, lo those many, many years ago.  Katie lives just across the Bay in San Francisco, and for some stupid reason we don’t get together as often as we should.  Janet lives in Texas, so her visits are of course precious.  Janet was sent to our neck of the woods last week for business, and was able to make time for lunch with Katie and me.  Yay!  Often when I lunch with Janet &/or Katie, we go to Va de Vi, since they have delicious lamb and tuna tartare and chocolate souffle, and all things yummy.  This time, however, I decided to cook, as Janet has been in a hotel and eating in restaurants all week, and I thought a little home cooked meal might be welcome right about then.

Conversation meandered a bit, and Janet happened to mention that she has a delicious banana bread recipe, very moist, and that she always looks it up online by searching for cinnamon sugar, since the recipe has you dust the bread pan with it, even though she doesn’t include that step.   Well, Sunday morning had me up and about and wondering what to do with myself while Ted and Maya snoozed a bit more.  Then I noticed the 2 very ripe bananas sitting on the counter, and I remembered that we had sour cream in our fridge.  Hmmm.  Perhaps I should try this recipe out?  The key, says Janet, is to fully incorporate the banana and sour cream before adding to the recipe.  Easy enough, I just ran them around in my Cuisinart until they were smooth.  I found the recipe the same way she did, by searching for ‘banana bread sour cream cinnamon sugar’

I only had 2 bananas, which calls for 6, so I made 1/3 of the recipe, which made one large loaf of banana bread. The recipe is called ‘Banana Sour Cream Bread’, which is perhaps descriptive, but not as good, in my mind, as “Janet’s Banana Bread”, so that’s what I’m calling it. Tried a bit for breakfast, and I gotta say, it’s delicious. Very moist and yummy. Thanks, Janet.

Janet’s Banana Bread
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I omit, because Ted and Maya don’t like nuts in their baked goods. I know, they’re crazy. If my MIL has some, she’ll (very sensibly) ask, “Where are the nuts?”)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease four 7×3 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Dust pans lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 3 cups sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda and flour. Stir in nuts. Divide into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

~ Music to bake banana bread by on a lazy Sunday Morning: Idlewild, Everything But the Girl.