Banana Bread

Tho I learnt how to bake and cook in my catering college, I never really tried it out at home. It was always something associated with studies and college :(.

Once I had my first kid, I got quite domesticated and felt as a mom I had to bake something for my 3 year old. I had lost touch completely with baking as it had been a few years since I traversed that road.Took out a recipe book and said not only tasty, it must be healthy as well. So fished out a recipe for a honey oatmeal cake. With all the enthusiasm of a born again baker I embarked on an exciting task. Sifted, sieved, mixed, creamed did everything with real gusto.... Out of the oven came this "appalam". It looked like a cake, tasted like a cake, but looked absolutely flat like a pita round. To this day I dont know what I did wrong. But my son enjoyed every morsel and kept telling me" Amma, how nice how nice!!. You are the best cook in the world" It was such a pleasure to hear. Kids can really make your day. After that it was a learning curve. Tried many recipes. Different things. Learnt a lot along the way.

When I started baking, one of the first things I wanted to try out was banana bread. My first taste of it was totally different from what I had expected. When you say bread, the image that comes up in your mind is very different - Sliced bread, brown bread.... Banana bread is just a yummy yummy cake. The walnuts give a nice crunch in every bite. And the taste of banana??? Just pure heaven...

Now for the recipe:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup mashed very ripe banana
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour sifted
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream butter sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well. Stir in banana and vanilla. Add sifted dry ingredients.Add walnuts at this stage. Pour into a greased loaf pan ( 4" x 9").

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Cool and cut into pieces.