Mickey's Banana Bread

I have far too many bananas in my house.  

The circumstances behind this overflow is in large part due to the fickleness of my son, who overnight went from having to be limited to two bananas a day (with much protest and tears on his part) to deciding he never wanted to see eat another banana ever again.  Since this sudden decision happened to coincide with a sale (.29 cents a pound!), I found myself in the midst of a fruit-related disaster.

Luckily, some genius out there came up with the recipe for banana bread.  Even more luckily, banana bread is, at varying times, featured in several Disney parks including the Monorail Cafe, Boma, and even Tusker House, and I just so happened to have one of the recipes (and all of the ingredients) handy.

The results were amazing.

The bread was dense without being to heavy, moist, and it had this fantastic marbling from the banana that made it so pretty to look at when it was sliced.  Seeing as this was the first banana bread I'd ever made that didn't require any spices beyond vanilla extract, I was worried it'd be "boring," but it ended up being the first bread I'd ever tried where the bananas did all the talking when it came to flavor.  I did make it without the nuts due to allergy concerns, but we certainly didn't miss them.

It took me right back to eating at Tusker House.  All I needed was the Jungle Juice.

~~~~  °o°  ~~~~

Mickey's Banana Bread

As is served at Monorail Cafe, Boma, and Tusker House

°o°  1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

°o°  2 cups sugar

°o°  2 eggs, beaten

°o°  2 cups banana, mashed (about 3 medium-large bananas)

°o°  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

°o°  3 cups flour

°o°  1/2 teaspoon salt

°o°  2 teaspoons baking soda

°o°  1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix melted butter and sugar in large bowl until very well blended (sugar will not melt, the mixture will be the texture of wet sand).  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, then add bananas and vanilla.  Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda and fold into the banana mixture, making sure all flour is moistened but the mixture is not over-mixed (to prevent air bubbles).  Fold in walnuts, if desired.  The batter will be thick.

Grease and flour two bread pans and divide batter equally between them.  Bake for 1 hour or until center of loaf is firm with a somewhat crunchy top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pans for 1 minute before removing the bread from a pan and transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Serve either warm or cold with butter, bananas, syrup, or even ice cream.

Makes 2 loaves.

~~~~  °o°  ~~~~

If two loaves seems like a lot to eat, simply freeze one.  Banana bread does really well in the freezer and thaws quickly and beautifully.