Don’t Throw Those Bananas Away!

Most people know that you use very ripe to slightly over ripe bananas to make banana bread.  D and I usually don’t finish the last banana or two in time and we were composting them because I didn’t want banana bread.  I hated being wasteful so I started to save the bananas.  You’ll see in the photo below that I peel the bananas and squish them into a container.  I then set this container in the freezer and add more bananas when they start going down hill.

And what about those peels?  I’ve been composting mine, but if you have roses, banana peels are  like the elixir of life for them.  Yes, if you’ve seen Seven Pounds, he’s right.  Bananas have many nutrients that roses like including calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphates, and sodium.  If you’ve kept a banana too long, you see how fast they get mushy and start decomposing.  When buried next to roses, this fast decomposition means that the “fertilizer” is more quickly available to start working its magic.

I had to try one to make sure it tasted ok

So… I did finally make banana bread.  There are so many different recipes online nowadays!  I used a traditional recipe out of a cookbook.  I pulled out my banana container, drained off the juice, and scooped out what I needed.  (I still have 1/2 jar left after making three batches!)

What you need:

• 1-3/4 cups sifted flour  (I ran out of white at the end and used some whole wheat flour – worked fine)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup shortening (I also ran out of this, so I used butter – again, it worked fine)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 cup mashed banana

What to do:

• Mix flour, soda, cream of tartar, and salt
• Cream shortening, then add sugar, then add eggs
• Mash ripe bananas (2-4 bananas yield 1 cup)
• Add flour, then bananas to the shortening mixture
• Mix well
• Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in 350 degree F oven for 1 hour or until done.  I experimented with muffins – 1 batch makes 12 regular sized muffins, but you only bake them for 30 minutes.

Optional Mix-Ins:

• Peanut butter
• Reese’s Pieces – a Twitter buddy told me this makes it taste like a peanut butter banana sandwich, mmm!
• Nuts – I added a couple handfuls of walnuts to my batches
• Chocolate chips
• Chopped cherries

Yield: 1 loaf or 12 muffins

Although I’m not fond of nuts, I put them in the bread because D likes them.  I can’t wait to try adding Reese’s Pieces to the bread.  I ended up making 2 loaves and 12 muffins, so I’m pretty set for a while!  This recipe produces a nicely textured, moist bread and I enjoyed it!

So I listed a few mix-ins above.  What are your favorites?  What unique ingredients have you added to banana bread and was it good?

My "freezer container" still has enough for another couple batches... that's a lot of bread!