The Best Banana Bread Ever!

For Christmas, I requested and received another cookbook. Which is funny considering I’ve complained about only receiving cookbooks since culinary school. Also funny is that I only put cookbooks on my Amazon wish list, and I complain about only getting cookbooks.

Anywho… Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian” has a few killer recipes. One is the banana bread recipe. I would reprint it (without permission) here but I can’t. The book is very large and fluorescent green, but I can’t find it. Anyway, I have something scribbled in my notebook that looks like this:

1 1/2 C. All-Purpose Flour
1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
8 Tbsp. Cold Butter, cubed
3/4 C. Sugar
2 Eggs
3 Bananas, sliced
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 C. Pecans, chopped
1/2 C. Shredded Coconut

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees, and grease the bottom of a bread pan. In a large bowl, combine the flours, the salt, and the baking powder. In a blender, puree the eggs, sugar and bananas. Add the butter and pulse until it is incorporated. Don’t overblend. You should be able to see a million little butter dots throughout. If the mixture is too dense to blend easily, I like to grasp the blender from under the base with my left hand and from the top of the canister with my right hand, squeeze together, and shake the whole darn thing. While it’s blending. You can also use a large food processor. That would be easier. Anyway, add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir together. Once this is uniform, fold in the vanilla, nuts, and coconut. Pour into the bread pan and bake for 45-60 minutes. Or 65 minutes if you’re using the oven I’m using. Test it with a knife or toothpick or something.

Cheers.