Banana Nut Bread

This has been my banana bread recipe of choice for almost 30 years.  I'm not a big Martha Stewart fan, but a few of her recipes are mainstays in my files and I haven't found a better banana nut bread recipe in all my years in the kitchen.  The banana flavor is just right and sour cream produces a perfectly moist loaf.  Everything comes together just right in this recipe and I've never had it fail.  It's from Martha's first book, Entertaining, published in 1982.  I remember all the hoop-la this book generated because it was one of the first easy to follow, with-it books targeting women who wanted to elevate their cooking skills and home entertaining.  And I was right there in the middle of the pack.

Banana Nut Bread

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup very ripe banana, mashed

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup nuts, chopped

Cream butter, sugar and eggs.  Sift the dry ingredients and combine with the butter mixture.  Blend well.

Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla; stir well.  Stir in the nuts and pour into well buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan or several smaller pans.  I line the pans with parchment just to make sure the loaves remove easily.  Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Turn out onto a rack to cool.

The Martha Stewart empire started with this book and it's been spun into many other titles and topics over the years.  If you've never seen a copy it is definitely worth reading. You will find several very good recipes inside and over 500 color photos in it's 300 pages.

You guessed it! It's Food Friday again. Skip on over to Designs by Gollum to see who is participating this week.  You won't want to miss the fun.