I should have known that if I needed a quick and easy banana bread recipe, I’d find it in my Grandmother’s recipe box.

Leave it to my Grandma Metzger to have the best and easiest recipe for banana bread. I found this recipe in her little brown recipe box and I was happy to find an easy way to use up my blackened bananas.

Simple ingredients and overripe bananas add up to one delicious treat!

Quick Breads Are Just That…

Banana bread is in the baking family of goodies known as quick bread.

A quick bread recipe is traditionally one that doesn’t require yeast. Therefore, you don’t have to knead it or wait for it to rise and it is QUICK to mix up and bake.

Related: Banana Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Many cakes, cookies, biscuits, and scones can be classified as quick bread. Why? They rely on baking soda or baking powder instead of yeast to help the batter or dough rise when baking.

Some of my most popular recipes fall into the quick bread category!

Lemon Blueberry Poundcake

If you’re ready for a taste of spring, you might want to try my lemon blueberry bread.

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

It’s more like a pound cake, but if you are a lemon lover, this is a cake you’re going to love!

This recipe is a bit of a Pinterest sensation and might be a delicious way to celebrate to coming days of Spring!

Easy Pumpkin Bread

Nothing makes me happier than when I read that one of my family’s recipes has become one of your family’s favorites too. That’s the story with my pumpkin bread recipe.

pumpkin bread

This recipe is from my other grandmother’s recipe box, my Grandma Bauer. She didn’t cook that much, but this recipe was certainly her specialty.

I think what makes it so good is that it’s not too spicy. You taste the pumpkin, with the subtle notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s also moist and tender.

I know that pumpkin is usually a flavor associated with the fall, but I have to tell you… after you bake up a loaf of the quick and easy banana bread recipe below, you may want to keep the oven on and bake up this pumpkin bread recipe too.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

This zucchini quick bread/muffin is one of those recipes that will fool your friends and family.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

They’ll love how light and airy they are. They’ll love the chocolate chips and the cinnamon cream cheese frosting. And they’ll never guess that zucchini is the star ingredient of this cupcake recipe.

A definite recipe to have on hand when you’re looking for something quick and easy, or when your local farmer’s market starts featuring this popular summer bounty favorite.

Let’s Go Bananas for Banana Bread!

Perhaps the best thing about a banana bread recipe is that it helps you use up those blackened bananas that seem to ripen overnight on your counter.

banana bread

The key to the best flavor in banana bread is to use overly ripe bananas. The peel of the bananas should be brownish-black. The bananas should be mushy.

And as much as you’ll question yourself for using something that seems to have gone bad, you have hit the sweetness and flavor jackpot for your banana bread. Have faith. The banana gods are with you.

Banana Bread
Yield: 1 loaf

Banana Bread

Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour

Have faith. The banana gods are with you.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup shortening (like Crisco)
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
  • 1/2 cup nuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Lightly grease 1 regular size loaf pan.
  3. Combine flour, soda, cream of tartar, and salt in medium bowl and set aside.
  4. Cream shortening and sugar in separate bowl. Add eggs.
  5. Add in dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in bananas until combined. Gently stir in nuts or chocolate chips.
  6. Pour batter into loaf pan.
  7. Bake 50-60 minutes, until golden brown and bread is baked through. This freezes really well!

I happen to love peanut butter and banana as a foodie combo and I’ve been known to smear a little peanut butter on a slice of this banana bread when it is still warm. The melty goodness of the peanut butter on the warm banana bread is certainly a combo that would make Elvis proud! 🙂

Related: Banana and Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies

I hope you’ll let me know in the comment section below if you give this recipe a try! In the meantime, I’m going to spend some more time looking through Grandma’s recipe box to find some more great food ideas to share with all of you.

Happy Baking!

From my kitchen to yours,

Jill

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