Betty’s Banana Bread

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup walnuts — chopped

Wet Ingredients

• ½ cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 egg — beaten
• 3 ripe bananas — mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat Oven: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
2. Cream Shortening and Sugar: In a large bowl cream together shortening and sugar for 2–3 minutes until light, smooth, and fluffy.½ cup shortening, 1 cup sugar
3. Add Wet Ingredients: Add beaten eggs, mashed bananas, and vanilla. Mix until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.2 eggs, 3 bananas, 1 tsp vanilla
4. Mix Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl whisk together flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and fold gently until mostly incorporated, leaving a few visible streaks of flour.2 cups flour, ½ tsp salt
5. Add Baking Soda: Stir baking soda into milk until dissolved. Pour the milk mixture over the batter and fold gently just until evenly combined and no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.1 tsp baking soda, 3 tbsp milk
6. Fold in Nuts: Fold chopped walnuts gently into the batter.1 cup walnuts
7. Fill Pan: Spread the batter evenly in the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top.
8. Bake: Bake for 55–65 minutes, beginning to check the loaf at 55 minutes. The bread is done when the top is deeply golden and cracked and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter. If the top is browning too quickly, loosely cover it with foil for the remaining baking time.
9. Cool: Let bread cool for 10–15 minutes in the pan before carefully transferring it to a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing so the crumb can finish setting.