Banana Walnut Friendship Bread

Banana Walnut Friendship Bread

This is a nostalgic bread/cake that goes back to the days when we first arrived in Toronto, Canada in the late 1970s. My then-brother-in-law worked at Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and brought home a recipe book featuring Crisco Oil. This Banana Nut Loaf recipe, modified by me many times over, originated from that P&G recipe book. 

Some of the changes I made were to replace granulated sugar with dark brown sugar to improve the colour of the bread, to add sour cream to improve the moistness of the bread and most recently, to add Amish Friendship Bread Starter to the batter to give a yeasty aroma and taste to this banana nut loaf. The Amish Friendship Bread Starter can be omitted for a denser, cake-like banana nut loaf. Using the starter gave it a more bread-like texture.

Use the darkest brown sugar you can find, the darker the better. I had only light brown sugar on hand, which accounts for the lightness in the center of the bread. And if you skimp on the Crisco oil, your bread will be dry and horrible. I'm sure substituting another vegetable oil for Crisco will work just fine but, some forty years later, I continue to use Crisco oil.

Ingredients

3-4 overripe bananas, mashed

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter (optional)

3/4 cup Crisco oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease two 9" x 5" loaf pans.
2. Sift flour with salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. Beat remaining ingredients, except walnuts, together until smooth.
4. Add one-third flour at a time to wet ingredients and beat until blended.
5. Fold half the walnuts into the batter and pour into loaf pans.
6. Sprinkle remaining walnuts evenly over the top
7. Bake at 350°F for 55-60 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and bring to room temperature before slicing.