Banana-Orange and Walnut Bread

 

With the overabundance of clementines that have been in our house lately, somehow a few bananas managed to get lost in the shuffle and got a bit overly ripe. So, that only means one thing - time to make banana bread! Yesterday was the first time in about three weeks that I had the kitchen all to myself during the day, so I was able to do some "experimenting" by using orange juice in this recipe.  It adds just the right amount of sweetness to make this bread totally delicious!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
2/3 cup bananas, mashed
2/3 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 1 1/2 quart loaf pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.  In a large bowl,  put all the ingredients in the order given except the walnuts and mix well with large spoon.  When well combined, "fold" the walnuts gently into the batter.  Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let pan cool about 15 minutes on a wire rack.  Invert pan and remove loaf to wire rack to continue cooling.

Best Ever Banana Muffins

 
After searching online and through my many cookbooks for just the right banana muffin recipe, I found the best one in a cookbook given to me many years ago by an old office mate. The front cover of the cookbook fell off a long time ago, so I have absolutely no idea how old the cookbook is!  The original name of the recipe was "Banana Tea Bread."  As you can tell by the pictures below, the cookbook is probably older than me! I wrote all over the recipe, because I had to adapt it several times to get it just right :)  Earlier this year, February 23rd, I posted a recipe for Banana Oatmeal Muffins that is also quite tasty. Try making those sometime too!!
 

 

Ingredients:

3 medium size ripe bananas
1 3/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2  large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons margarine or butter (softened)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and fill 12-muffin tin with paper liners.  Mash bananas in separate bowl with fork.  Put bananas and margarine or butter in a larger bowl and add the rest of the ingredients to it.  Mix until well combined.  Fill the liners with about 3/4 of the mixture.  Bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffins comes out clean.  Cool about 10 minutes on wire rack.  For a variation, try adding about 1/4-1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the batter before baking. The last time I made these I used dark chocolate chips :)