Food for Thought: Mom's Banana Nut Bread

I don’t think my mom really enjoyed cooking, but she loved to bake. The cookie jar was always full when we got home from school, but it didn’t take long for her eight kids to empty it. She made an amazing Toll House cookie with just the right amount of chocolate chips and her applesauce cookies were to die for! When the milk cows were producing and she had plenty of cream, she made chocolate and white sour cream cupcakes by the dozens. I loved candy bars and cookies from the store, but I never missed them at home.

There was one treat I know Mom made just for me because I could eat an entire loaf by myself and that was her banana nut bread. Since I grew up with this tasty sweet bread lovingly made by my mom, I can’t find any in the stores that tastes quite like hers. Using her recipe always makes me melancholy for the rest of the day as I eat slice after slice and remember the sounds and smells of her busy kitchen.

 I spent many days during my crazy high school years curled up in a kitchen chair with a generous piece of warm bread in my hand while we chatted about boys and homework, friends and the future. I never imagined then that I would lose my mom when she was only 68. I’d give almost anything for one of those chats now…maybe I’d better find a couple of my teenaged daughters and slice up another loaf.


 Mom’s Banana Nut Bread

½ cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas, mashed (approx. 1 ¼ cups)
½ cup walnuts (coarsely chopped)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

Cream shortening and add brown sugar gradually.

Add eggs one at a time. Add bananas. Now put in the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add nuts.

Spray loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes one large or two small loaves. When I double this recipe I can get three loaves out of it.