BOB — Banana Nut Bread

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This was my fourth loaf from Beard on Bread; going a bit out of order as I had, nat­u­ral­ly, had some brown­ing bananas to use up. (I’ve a sil­ly lit­tle project in progress that involves try­ing every recipe in this clas­sic cookbook.)

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The prep

I had a few strays from the pub­lished recipe: My bananas could have been brown­er or black­er, and I used a 10-inch loaf pan, also known, appar­ent­ly, as a “over­sized bread loaf pan.” I had nev­er heard of a 12-inch loaf pan, as spec­i­fied in the recipe, but knew I’d find one at King Arthur Flour. They call it a “tea loaf pan.” (For what it’s worth, KAF calls an 8‑inch loaf pan a “stan­dard bread loaf pan” and a 9‑incher a “quick bread pan.”) 

Also, I used buck­wheat hon­ey and blanched almond pieces. And I baked the loaf for 65 minutes.

The result

The bread­’s tex­ture was smooth and moist and in-the-mouth melty. I detect­ed a pleas­ant hon­ey back­ground fla­vor that might have gone miss­ing had I used clover hon­ey instead of the stronger-fla­vored buck­wheat hon­ey. I did­n’t miss not hav­ing any cin­na­mon or oth­er spices, or even vanil­la. Enough pure banana fla­vor came through to keep me happy. 

Arbuably, the loaf could have been baked for a few more min­utes, but I pre­fer to err on the side of under­bak­ing, espe­cial­ly if slices will be toast­ed or reheat­ed. (Toast­ed it is yum­my, of course.)

In the pho­to below, the heavy white spots are the parts of the almond pieces that I guess did not ful­ly baked. They might be visu­al­ly jar­ring, but oth­er­wise not a problem.

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Banana Nut Bread

[1 large loaf]

½ stick (¼ cup) but­ter
½ cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar
½ cup hon­ey
2 eggs
1½ cups mashed, very ripe bananas (3 heavy ones should do it)
1½ cups all-pur­pose flour
½ tea­spoon bak­ing soda
½ tea­spoon salt
½ cup sliced nuts, almonds or your choice

Cream the but­ter with a wood­en spoon. Add the sug­ar and hon­ey and beat till creamy and light. Add the eggs, one at a time, then thor­ough­ly mix in the bananas. Sift togeth­er the flour, soda, and salt and blend thor­ough­ly into the mix­ture. Final­ly fold in the nuts.

But­ter a 12 x 4½ x 2½-inch loaf tin and pour in the bat­ter. Bake in a pre­heat­ed 350-degree oven 1 hour, or until a knife insert­ed in the cen­ter comes out clean.

Beard on Bread, James Beard, Knopf, 1974

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Banana Nut Bread recipe from Beard on Bread by James Beard. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1974, p.170.