Grandma's Banana Bread

Now that we've polished off all 5 pounds of potato salad I made last week (seriously), it's time to get back to my standard fare: sugar and sugar. This week we are talking banana bread. Like pretty much everyone else on planet Earth, banana bread is my go-to when I have overripe bananas. I like to do a variation with strawberries on occasion, but the original is always a classic.This particular recipe caught my eye because it calls for both white and brown sugar, instead of just white.

This recipe actually comes from Cooking With Union Hospital, which is a cookbook put out in the 90s by the hospital in my home town of Mayville, North Dakota (The Way America's Supposed To Be™). Technically it's not a church cookbook, but in the same vein. It is credited to V. Olson.

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Grandma's Banana Bread

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 Tbsp. butter

1 egg, beaten

2 Tbsp. sour milk (buttermilk)

1/2 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 cups sifted flour

Pour into greased and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350° for one hour. Makes one loaf.

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As suspected, the brown sugar really does add a nice depth to the flavor. It also helps create a crust on the loaf right out of the oven. You can vary the amount of bananas you use, depending on what you have, so I ended up using 5 smaller bananas I'd had in the freezer and it turned out just fine.

So yeah, pretty basic stuff this week; nothing too flashy or odd. Sometimes a solid standard is all you need.

Final rating: 4/5 always half brown, half white sugar from now on!

On a side note, I'm considering doing a video series as a supplement to this blog where I make ND/MN recipes from these cookbooks and get native Texans to taste it. Lutefisk, anyone?