THE Banana Bread Recipe

This is my grandmother's Banana bread recipe, and over the years I have tried new additions (chocolate chips, strawberries, no eggs, flaxseed, etc.), but it's good without any additions as well. I thought I'd share it with you, although this time I did add strawberries because they were either going to be thrown away or made into something yummy!

The original recipe is as follows:

1. Separate 2 eggs

2. Mix: 1 Cup sugar, 1/2 Cup Oleo or butter, 1 Tablespoon Milk, Yolks of 2 Eggs, 3 or 4 bananas mashed, 2 Cups Flour, and 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

3. Beat egg whites stiff & fold into first part

4. Put in greased bread pan & bake 350 degrees for about 55-60 minutes

*I use one bread pan, my grandma splits it up into 1 large & 1 small, or 3 small. It depends on how big you want your loaf to be. It is easier to cut if you divide it up because the top part doesn't break off as easily.

To make Banana/Strawberry bread I gathered the above ingredients

(to original recipe I added about 2 cups strawberries & increased all ingredients by 1/2)

Separate the egg yolks & whites. I love the kitchen aid mixer because on high it made the egg whites stiff in about 2 minutes. A regular hand mixer will work just fine, but may take longer. Once the egg whites were stiff I transfered to another bowl so I could mix the ingredients together with the mixer.

Using ripe (brown bananas, and mushy strawberries) fruit is much easier to mash, and usually tastes better too.

Here is the batter all mixed up before I put in the bread pans! Since the recipe is 1 1/2 I did put it in 2 regular bread pans, instead of making one large loaf.

And all finished, ready to eat!

Another favorite alteration is the addition of chocolate chips, or adding cocoa powder into the batter, white chocolate chips, and walnuts. Pretty much the sky is the limit.

To make a healthier bread you can take the eggs out and replace with an extra banana and/or applesauce (I think it is one cup per egg), you can replace some of the butter with ground flaxseed...once again you could probably try a lot of different substitutions.

If you make it and try something new/different, I'd love to hear what you do!

Special thanks to my dear Grandma Marsh for passing on her favorite recipes to me!