One day late for what would have been my Aunt Buzz’s birthday; I am giving her yet another chance to haunt me by ‘gorping up’ – her term – one of her all-time classic recipes: Banana Bread.
Buzz’s bread on it’s own is really very, very good; but, as I got to thinking about it, there were three bananas (the magic number) on their last legs on the fruit platter, and I did have a fresh batch o’ Honey Butter made with chile infused honey that will now be the only way I make honey butter, so…
Buzz’s Gorped Up Banana Bread it is!
Note: the hot honey does not actually make the honey butter “hot” – but it does seem to bring out the flavor of the cinnamon. In the same way, using “hot honey butter” in the banana bread does not turn it into some zippy Tex-Mex or whatever inspired loaf that should be served with queso.
It simply makes for a lovely loaf of bread.
INGREDIENTS
•3 ripe bananas
•1/4 cup crushed pecans
•6 tbsp honey butter (or regular butter)
•3/4 cup sugar
•3/4 cup milk
•3 eggs
•3 cups flour
•1 tbsp baking powder
•3/4 tsp baking soda
•3/4 tsp salt
The first thing too note about Aunt Buzz’s recipe is her instruction to SIFT the flour together with the baking powder, soda, and salt THREE times.
This is NOT negotiable, but…
where my aunt relied on one of those old-school box sifters, I have discovered that 
adding them all to a mixing bowl and stirring with a wire whisk does the exact same thing, with less muss and fuss, so, bonus!
Heat your oven too 350º and apply cooking spray to a loaf pan.
As noted above, add your flour, baking soda, powder, and salt to a large mixing bowl and whisk until well blended.
In another mixing bowl, cream the softened honey butter together with the sugar until fluffy, then set aside.
Yeh, I know. For a woman who did not really care for cooking and who did not have a dishwasher, Aunt Buzz could tear through the crockery when she did decide to get to work in the kitchen.
Once the butter and sugar have been nicely creamed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, then set that bowl aside.
OK, last bowl, promise!
In a third mixing bowl, crush the bananas and mix in the milk (I used the mixer from the butter and egg bowl) until well blended.
So. To recap. In the large bowl we have the “sifted” flour mixture, in the medium sized bowl, we have a butter, sugar, and eggs combo; and in the small bowl, the mashed bananas and milk.
Add about half of the butter mixture and half of the banana blend to the flour bowl and mix well – irt will be a bit dry.
Add the remaining butter and banana bowl contents and continue to mix until well and truly blended.
Stir in the crushed pecans and transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan – I have the pan sitting on a larger baking pan just in case the batter over rises.
Note: if you can find them, black walnut pieces work a treat in this recipe in place of the pecans.
Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, until a toothpick or (better) wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool on a rack for about 20 minutes before you invert the pan and turn out the loaf of bread.
Cool completely on a rack before slicing and serving.
Oh… I should note… that honey butter?
Works a treat spread on the bread as well!
Sorry not sorry, Aunt Buzz!