mom's banana bread

The most tattered recipe card in anyone's collection always yields the best results.

I'm a fairly adventurous cook. More often than not, I'll try a new recipe over an old one just to expand the repertoire and try something new. But when I bake, I seem to go for the familiar, the tried and true recipes from my past. That means flipping through the little 3x5 index cards I've collected in a homely, little card file for most of my life.

Conveniently, it's easy to find the trusted, old stand-bys. They've defied my attempts to organize them under their proper categories for cakes, cookies and desserts. Their frequent use and my laziness has left them gathered in all their frumpy, dog-eared glory, at the front of the file box where they greet me like old friends: Peanut Butter Brownies, Lemon Squares, Finnish Spoon Cookies and other favorites. But the shabbiest recipe in the bunch is definitely the one for Mom's Banana Bread.

The recipe is written in faded pencil. The scrawl is mine, circa 1980 -- all caps because I thought that was cool at the time. The 3x5 index card on which it's printed is yellowed and smudged by the spills of previous batches but brightly decorated with a bushel of apples and a cheery rainbow -- very sweet, very 70s. And this recipe makes the best banana bread ever, though I am most certainly biased by my food memories of it, as this was the only banana bread I remember eating at our house. The recipe is easy, the loaf it produces is dense and moist with great banana flavor, and it's the best use for over-the-hill bananas I can think of.

At our house, a few over-ripe bananas seems to be a common occurence. I prefer them a bit green, you see. A preference, I believe I inherited from my dad as he's the only other one I know who likes them that way. Once they develop the slightest brown age spot, it's over in my book. They've lost that fresh banana flavor I love. So, into banana bread they go. Or into the freezer, if I'm not quite ready to bake. (Freezing old bananas is something my husband has just never understood. I think he may have been frightened by them lurking in my freezer when we were first dating. It wasn't something his mom did, perhaps. Or maybe, she was just more organized and put them into a container of some kind. Not me, I just throw 'em in the freezer and dig them out when I'm ready to bake the next batch of banana bread.)

I took liberties with Mom's Banana Bread recipe today. I replaced half the flour with whole wheat pastry flour. And I substituted lemon zest for orange and added the juice of a lemon (I recall reading somewhere recently that whole wheat requires a bit more moisture). Frozen blueberries got thrown in the mix too because they sounded good with the lemon (and I have an abundance in the freezer that need to get eaten up before blueberry season arrives once again).

My lemon-blueberry version of Mom's Banana Bread turned out a decent loaf, I think. It's wonderful fresh out of the oven, with or without butter. It will also serve nicely as a dessert this evening topped with honey-and-lemon-spiked Greek yogurt. But my favorite way to enjoy this family favorite will come tomorrow morning, when I'll enjoy it toasted with butter for breakfast.

mom's banana bread

makes 1 loaf

2 1/2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat pastry flour)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar (I used to 3/4 cup and it was still plenty sweet)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg, beaten

1 cup banana, mashed

2 tbsp orange zest

1/2 cup milk

1 cup walnuts or pecans, optional

Other options: In place of the nuts, I added 1 cup frozen blueberries; substituted lemon zest for orange; and added 1-2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 9x5x3 loaf pan.

Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.

With mixer or wooden spoon, beat sugar, butter, and egg until smooth. Add bananas, orange zest, and milk and mix well. Stir in nuts; add dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes until top is golden brown.