My Mother’s Mother’s Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp soda

¾ tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2-3)

1 cup nuts

Directions:

Mix flour with baking powder, soda, and salt. Cream shortening and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add bananas and mix. Add flour in 4 portions and beat until smooth each time. Bake in load pan (well greased.) 350 oven for 50 monutes.

Cranberry Bread

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon shortening

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. grated orange peel

juice form 1 orange

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 egg, beaten

1 cup cranberries, halved

½ cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Heat over to 350. Grease loaf pan, 9x5x3”. Cut shortening into flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and peel. Add water to juice to measure ¾ cup; blend in with cheese and egg. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Bake in prepared pan 60-70 minutes. Let load stand 8 hours before slicing.

Don't try this alone...

I made this one night last week when I was home all by my lonesome and bored to death. I then proceeded to feel sick to my stomach for the next two days because I ate half the loaf in the two hours following its exit from the oven. I really would make this only in circumstances where you will not be left in the room with it alone, unsupervised, for more than 20 minutes.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/glazed_lemon_bread/

Glazed Lemon Bread Recipe

Tip: eggs rise better when they are at room temp. If you are pressed for time and have cold eggs, put them in a bowl of warm water (not hot, warm) for a few minutes before using.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces (1 stick, 8 Tbsp) butter, softened*
• 1 cup minus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 eggs (room temp)
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze

• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp honey

* Do not soften butter in microwave. Either leave a stick of butter on kitchen counter for an hour, or place between two pieces of wax paper and rollout with a rolling pin to soften.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 4x8-inch loaf pan.

2 Beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and honey, continue to beat until creamy, a few minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to incorporate. On low speed, slowly beat the milk in. Do not worry if the mixture looks a little curdled. Mix in lemon zest.

3 Sift together the flour, salt, cardamom, baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients, beating until smooth.

4 Place batter in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F.

5 While the lemon bread is baking, prepare the glaze. Heat the glaze ingredients - lemon juice, sugar, honey - in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.

6 Once you have removed the bread from the oven, poke holes all over the top with a thin skewer (this will help the glaze penetrate). Spoon the glaze over it while the bread is still in the pan and is still hot. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan and slicing to serve.

Makes one loaf.