Food Friday: Merepoint Banana Bread
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I would rather bake anything, anyday than cook. I do love cooking, but I REALLY, REALLY love baking.
Given that, I’m often trying to figure out things I can bake that offer some nutritional value and that won’t clog our arteries and make our thighs look like (any more like) trembling Easter hams.
Enter Merepoint Banana Bread.
I first learned about this recipe about ten years ago when I was editing a cookbook, and I latched onto it HARD. What?! No butter?! And it tastes this good? And is this easy? And is dairy-free for all of those out there with milk allergies?
YES.
Not only that, read what the recipe submitter wrote about it when she first tasted it. You’ll be hooked.
I first had this bread fresh from the oven with a cup of steamy hot coffee sitting on the porch of a cottage on Merepoint, near Brunswick, Maine. We sat talking over a day filled with sunshine and salt air on Casco Bay. A bite of this bread never fails to bring back a sense of that jewel-like day.
Heard enough? Okay, start baking!
Merepoint Banana Bread
3 medium or large ripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sifted flour (I often replace the white flour with some or all of King Arthur’s White Wheat flour. I do this in lots of baking, actually.)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Mash bananas in a bowl. Add eggs, sugar, flour, salt and baking soda. (No butter or shortening is used, the only fat in the recipe comes from the egg yolks.)
Bake one hour at 350 in a greased loaf pan, 9 x 5 inches or equivalent.
For variety, try adding the following, singly or in combinations:
Almond flavoring, pecans, walnuts or almonds, grated orange or lemon zest, spices such as cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg, chopped candied ginger or chocolate chips.
I made this last week with all white wheat flour and raisins for a kid’s playdate. Myself, I prefer it with double-strength vanilla extract, a full half-teaspoon of Vietnamese Cassia cinnamon and several generous handfuls of mini-chocolate chips. Got to make up for that lack of butterfat somehow.
Want a less goody-two shoes version of banana bread? Try Deb’s Jacked-Up Banana Bread over at Smitten Kitchen. To die for, as usual.
Happy baking!
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Anna Sawin is a Connecticut-based portrait, wedding, and editorial photographer. She lives in the shoreline town of Stonington with her family and has discovered the perfect cupcake. Just ask, she is willing to share her secret.
Yum!
Sounds great–I wonder how I’ve overlooked that recipe in the coobook–probably the lack of butter!
Cookbook editor, magazine editor, interviewer of famous authors, Real Simple model, what’s next???
Oh yes to the handfull of chocolate chips…I have that very cookbook that you edited, and never have to look for the page number for the BB recipe…the book just opens up naturally to that page after many years of use! M and I are huge Penzey’s fans too so I agree wth your choices, but last time we also added some Penzey’s orange zest…try it!
We’d make a good team…I can cook, but can’t bake to save my life.
YUM.
This sounds fabulous – thanks!
I’ll try this as soon as my greenish bananas get suitably grody.
I love your blog! My cousin-in-law Maria hooked me up, and she was right, I love it. I am trying to figure out a way to read the archives.
Oh I LOOOOVE baking too!! I bake cinnamon bread & raisin bread almost everyday. And I also have to admit we have lots of leftovers for dinner lol ..much rather baking
i’m soooo excited to try this. i love my banana bread recipe (with added choco chips, of course!) but will definitely try this one – nice and healthy! but, i can still add the choco chips, right??
OK, I finally tried this banana bread recipe. My husband has his favorite recipe made by his grandma and tends to be quite snobby about it. Nothing compares. So I tried this recipe with the expectation that he’d hate it. Period.
I didn’t add anything extra, no vanilla extract, cinnamon, or chocolate chips.
And you know what?? He LOVED it. Like really liked it. He said that it was spongier than his grandma’s, but the taste was fantastic. And he really really liked it.
Yeay!! Thanks for the recipe. It’s now officially in my recipe folder!
[…] eClaire sporting her green jingle hair scrunchies and eating Hank & Willie’s delicious banana bread. […]
This looks really yummy!!! You should enter this banana bread contest! You could win a $50 gift card to Sur La Table!
http://www.squidoo.com/moist-banana-bread-recipe
There aren’t very many submissions yet, so your chances of winning are good! I’d enter it myself, but I’m the one sponsoring it!!! haha!!
Plus, you’ll get traffic back to your website by entering the contest and that’s always a good thing!
Blessings,
Shauna
Hey, most of the banana bread recipes are dairy free. I’ll try this one too, what I like about banana bread – you almost can not ruin the recipe, every time I bake banana bread it turns out great. And I am not that great of a ccok 🙂
I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it’s delish! Last time I added vanilla (I didn’t measure, but probably about a tsp), and cinnamon (again, didn’t measure but I put in quite a bit). I absolutely love it. thank you!