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Saturday, April 16, 2022

N is for Not Aunt Edwina's Banana Bread

 

#AtoZChallenge 2022 Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter


Sometime in the late 1960s, I had pumpkin bread for the very first time when a woman at church named Grace Russ brought it to a church function. I thought it was one of the best things I had ever eaten (and I suspect I ate considerably more than my share of it that day). My mom got the recipe, and pumpkin bread became a staple at our house (my mom was not much for baking, but she made an exception for pumpkin bread). 

My dad always ate the pumpkin bread as he did all food, without compliment or complaint. He rarely said he didn't like a particular dish (unless it had components he didn't like, such as mushrooms, olives, or cucumber), nor did he rave about any particular food. You could assume that no news was good news whenever he ate. so I was surprised a few years ago when he announced that the introduction of pumpkin bread to society back in the late 60s meant no one made banana bread anymore, and he REALLY liked banana bread.


In fairness, he hadn't been completely deprived of banana bread over the years; I made it for him whenever we had overripe bananas, but pumpkin bread was on the table way more often. 
I always used the tried-and-true recipe my mom used that had been passed down to her from her Aunt Edwina. (I think this was it for Aunt Edwina as a culinary icon; I've never run across another of her recipes in any of my mom's recipe boxes; also, I have never put the pecans OR raisins in it.)


Then a few months ago, when we were at the lake house with a bunch of overripe bananas that my dad had been saving for me, I found out I didn't have Aunt Edwina's Banana Bread recipe there. I panicked a little and considered contacting my brother to have him email me a copy of the recipe (yes, this was HIS go-to banana bread recipe, too), then figured I could surely find something similar on the internet. I did a search and found this one from the Food Network (I didn't notice until I was writing this post that the recipe had been provided to the Food Network by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, creators of several restaurants in LA, cookbook authors, and, back in the 90s, hosts of the former Food Network show "Too Hot Tamales").

Seems I didn't take any photos of the process.
Here's the batter in the prepared pans.
Yes, I am aware the photo is sideways.

Mmmmmmm!


Having just now compared the two recipes, the only real difference in them is that  Aunt Edwina's recipe calls for shortening and the new recipe uses butter. The new recipe also calls for a lower oven temperature. Believe it or not, I am no scientist, so I have no idea how these small differences can make one recipe stand a head and shoulders above the other one, but they have.

My brother is having trouble accepting this, but Aunt Edwina's recipe is no longer my go-to (it's okay, Aunt Edwina will never know; she's been gone a good 50 years). It was a good run, but Mary Sue and Susan are the new sheriff's of Banana Bread Town. You can even ask my dad, who will not hesitate to tell you the banana bread made from the new recipe is MUCH better than Aunt Edwina's.

(Want another way to up your banana bread game, regardless of your recipe? After spraying your loaf pan with cooking spray, place about a quarter of a cup of granualated sugar into the pan and tip the pan from side to side until the inside is coated in a layer of sugar. Pour out any excess sugar, then fill the pan with batter and bake as usual. The finished loaf comes out of the pan easier, and it causes the crust to be softer and deliciously sweet.)

Sugar dumped in pan that has been
sprayed with cooking spray.

After the pan has been coated with sugar.

If you don't have a favorite banana bread recipe, try Mary Sue and Susan's, and if you DO have a favorite banana bread recipe, give this one a try anyway and do a comparison, but remember, my dad would not mislead you!

16 comments:

  1. I'm going to have to try your sugar coating process the next time I made banana bread. We're an equal opportunity bread making house and making plenty of both pumpkin and banana although my favorite is a blueberry bread from a recipe I got from Cooking Light many years ago. It is SO good! Weekends In Maine

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    1. I got that trick from one of those friendship bread starter recipes, and I've used it for every sweet quick bread since. I've never made blueberry bread, but I make blueberry muffins quite a bit. I always have blueberries in my freezer!

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  2. My grandmother always did the sugar coating and taught me to do it. It makes such a difference!

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    1. It's such a simple thing and yet makes a HUGE difference, doesn't it? I was always that kid who cut the crusts off my bread (sometimes still do), so this technique means I eat the whole piece!

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  3. I think the photo of the batter ready for the oven looks rather artistic sideways.

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    1. Thank you for appreciating my feeble attempt to cover an editing error :D

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  4. I have baked banana bread a couple of times... will follow the granulated sugar trick the next time


    Jayashree writes

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  5. We do love banana bread, and have for years. It was #2 Son's favorite thing to bake, he used to hide bananas to make sure we had some ripe enough all the time.

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    1. Aww, that's cute that he hid bananas! Like my dad buying more than he can eat so I will make banana bread for him!

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  6. Not Aunt Edwina's Banana Bread--that title made me laugh.

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  7. Oh I like that sugar idea in the pan like we do with flour to keep it from sticking. Hope I remember to try that. Usually you can tell all the older recipes, when they call for crisco. Can't beat a good banana bread recipe. I tried one that had me lay sliced bananas on the top in the center... it was good, but they also had me microwave the bananas before mashing them. That recipe was good, but very time consuming.

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    1. A few of my old family recipes call for lard!

      Was that center strip gooey because of the sliced bananas? I guess microwaving the bananas first might make them softer and therefore easier to mash. I just leave lumps and hope it proves how authentic it is! I have made banana bread with baby food bananas before and it's really good and moist. I did this when I was single, because I don't like to eat bananas as they are and never bought them but still wanted banana bread occasionally!

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  8. the best recipes are the ones hand written on a scrap of paper:-)

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    1. Right?! I have so many that way! The internet is great, but I would rather look through cookbooks and thumb through recipe boxes

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