Save your bananas ...

This Thursday, February 15th, would be Uncle Mac's birthday. Before I became allergic to bananas, and if I remembered to buy and SAVE - not eat - bananas, I would make banana bread with his recipe - of course, the only banana bread recipe I'll EVER use - to commemorate him.

Uncle Mac was technically my Dad's uncle, my Grandma's brother. He always said he was a "late Valentine" but the day is all his in my mind! He was an animal lover extraordinaire, as well as an accomplished mechanic, he could fix anything! He always had a farm going as well, and I believe he retired five times before he finally actually stopped "working." His Border Collie, Molly, would leap 6 feet of the ground for a grape. His cats, many over the years, would eat meals with him, perched on his shoulder, delicately taking offered pieces of meat off his fork. Never when "company" was over, of course, though.

So somebody, make banana bread Thursday - or even Wednesday, as it's fine for days! Okay? Shall I repost the recipe, or does everyone have it from the old recipe thread?

For us new people- can you repost or give the link for this???

Here's the link - it's post #211 in the Recipe Thread

Several batches will be made here Karen and donated to our baked goods sale for the rescue! In his name and yours!

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Originally Posted by Karen

Here's the link - it's post #211 in the Recipe Thread

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thank you..

Thank-You for the recipe, I've got 3 Bananas in my fruit basket that have worn out their Welcome~ Oh Darn it all, I ate one today!!

( I need 4!!)

I bake banana bread on the boat a lot. I have bananas here but if I bake it, I will eat it so I can not.....but I will bake one on the boat and remember him when I do!

I have a loaf in the oven right now Karen. I plan on getting it out of the oven in an hour and slicing up a piece and slathering it in butter and toasting uncle Mac for you.

Karen, I was very fond of my great aunts and uncles and your Uncle Mac will be celebrated in our house along with my own with some of his banana bread. We happen to be very fond of BB here. I hope Uncle Mac won't mind if we substitute Smart Balance for the butter and a cup of whole wheat flour along with a cup of the regular kind.

I'm so sorry you have become allergic to bananas.

No, Rachel, he wouldn't mind. One of my Great Aunts on the other side (Mac's brother-in-law's sister-in-law) was a stickler for doing things exactly as proscribed, but the rest of the clan was cool with adjusting as need be!

Thank you everyone else, and Dorothy39, I always had a heck of a time remembering to let 4 get good and speckly - I'd eat #4 and THEN remember - but our grocery store often has the "overripe" ones on special!

When me and my daughter were making up the batch she said "you use real bananas" I said yeah thats where the name banana bread comes from, she said I thought they used banana flavoring..hehe I guess I need to bake more with her. I had her mash the bananas and she said it was "narley".

Hee hee - tell her there's no such thing as "banana flavor" - anything artificially banana is just evil!

We were all involved with cooking from an early age, as it should be! :) Mushing up the 'nanas is fun! :p

I should cook with the kids more, I don't bake much myself. Usually we get home from whatever sport/activity and I am in a big hurry to cook dinner while they do their homework and baths.

I love banana bread. I'm going to have to try out your recipe. It looks pretty simple to make. Thanks for giving me the craving now! :p

I printed off the recipe and will bake it up later today. I have exactly FOUR very ripe bananas ready to thaw out. OH! When my bananas are super ripe, I put them in the freezer for a couple days, peel and all. Thawed for a few minutes and they are ready for mashing. Yes the look knarley :p but they are just right for baking. I do this to increase the chances that I will actually bake the bread - you know how ripe bananas ready for bread will end up in the trash? ;)

I will share it with Chris and Misha tomorrow. Fun idea to remember your uncle in this way Karen.

I printed off the recipe and will bake it up later today. I have exactly FOUR very ripe bananas ready to thaw out. OH! When my bananas are super ripe, I put them in the freezer for a couple days, peel and all. Thawed for a few minutes and they are ready for mashing. Yes the look knarley :p but they are just right for baking. I do this to increase the chances that I will actually bake the bread - you know how ripe bananas ready for bread will end up in the trash? ;)

I will share it with Chris and Misha tomorrow. Maybe I can time it so sirrahned will smell it baking when he gets home from work.

Fun idea to remember your uncle in this way Karen.

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Originally Posted by sirrahbed

I printed off the recipe and will bake it up later today. I have exactly FOUR very ripe bananas ready to thaw out. OH! When my bananas are super ripe, I put them in the freezer for a couple days, peel and all. Thawed for a few minutes and they are ready for mashing. Yes the look knarley :p but they are just right for baking. I do this to increase the chances that I will actually bake the bread - you know how ripe bananas ready for bread will end up in the trash? ;)

I will share it with Chris and Misha tomorrow. Maybe I can time it so sirrahned will smell it baking when he gets home from work.

Fun idea to remember your uncle in this way Karen.

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I always feel AWFUL if I only had two bananas and they were all speckly and ready for banana bread ... throwing them out felt like a crime! What a great solution! (If ever I become NOT allergic to bananas, I'll remember that!)

I didn't have baking soda so I used baking powder, the bread was really moist...actually too moist so I am not sure if that is why, I baked it for 1 hour and at least 20 minutes.

It was very good though :D

Hmm, never made that substitution - I know baking powder contains baking soda plus other stuff, but glad it came out tasty anyway! :)

Okay, found this:

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How much baking powder do I have to substitute for baking soda?
Baking soda is four times as strong as baking powder — so if your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, you would need four teaspoons of baking powder to produce the same amount of lift. Unfortunately, though, it’s not that simple.


Baking powder is made of baking soda and exactly the right amount of acid to react with the soda (it also includes corn starch to keep the ingredients from prematurely reacting in the privacy of their container). So if your recipe already has acidic ingredients that were going to neutralize the baking soda called for, you are adding other ingredients that may not sit well with them.

Substituting for a lack of baking powder is very easy: 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (ignoring the cornstarch) for each teaspoon of baking powder required.

We’ve looked in dozens of books to be sure, but no one provides information for the reverse procedure — substituting baking powder when you don’t have soda on hand. To do so, you would have to consider the acidic ingredients in the recipe, and perhaps reengineer the recipe to replace them with more neutral ingredients (using whole milk instead of buttermilk, perhaps). But at that point, you would see, it would be easier and probably a lot more successful to pick up a box of baking soda.

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So you're fortunate it worked, apparently! :)

I love your Uncle Mac's Banana Bread recipe, Karen, and it is filed in my "favorite" recipes. My family LOVES banana bread and yours is always the recipe that I use.

If i can get myself and Lilly well, then I will bake a loaf in your Uncle Mac's memory, too!

Logan

My loaf turned out wonderfully!! It is dense enough to cut well and still very moist - lots of banana flavor, too. I will make it again.

As for Uncle Mac - well I think I would have liked him very much. :)
...his name was Ovide McCarthy, he was a friend to animals, fixers of engines and all things mechanical, and beloved of children!...

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Originally Posted by sirrahbed

My loaf turned out wonderfully!! It is dense enough to cut well and still very moist - lots of banana flavor, too. I will make it again.

As for Uncle Mac - well I think I would have liked him very much. :)
...his name was Ovide McCarthy, he was a friend to animals, fixers of engines and all things mechanical, and beloved of children!...

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Oh, good! Enjoy the banana bread, yup - it's more banana-y than any other recipe I've ever had! :)

I think everyone here would have loved him! :) Maybe I am a bit biased ...