Banana Nut bread

Banana Nut Bread

Its Baking Time this weekend.Its been a long time since I baked something.
When I first came here to US, I was very excited to see the ovens in the apartment, which motivated me to try baking.To start with I used all the store bought cake mixes, which came out wonderfully.How many ever time you bake, the excitement to see your final product is always the same...Dont you all agree....
One of my collegue Invited me to her sons birthday party.She had baked a nice and delicious cake, when I asked about the receipe, she told me that it was a Banana bread receipe without a egg.Since they were Jains, they didnt want to buy cake from the stores.But their cake was very soft and it was a hit. So I got the original Banana bread receipe from her and started experimenting with it by adding an egg, it turned out good.

Nowadays I make it atleast once in a month for ourselves or as a nice gesture for friends when they invite us over for dinner.
Last week we had India - Pakistan one day match, and one of our friends invited us over to watch the overnight match.It sounded fun, so I decided to bake the Banana bread for some midnight snacking.

Ingredients.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar. ( I used only 3/4 cup as I wanted to cut down on sugar)
2 Rippened bananas
3 tblsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp vanilla essence or powder

Method:

Preheat the Oven to 350F/180C
Mix in the butter and sugar.Beat till smooth and frothy.
Sieve the flour and baking powder, soda, and salt mixture three times.
Mash the bananas well with the back of the fork
Beat the egg seperatly and add it to the butter mixture little by little, while mixing simultaneously.Add the flour mixture and mix well.The mixture will be very thick at this stage, add the milk now and mix well.Fold in the bananas at this stage and mix well.
Now add half of the chopped walnuts.
Greese the baking tray with butter, dust it with some flour.
Pour in the mixture and place it in the preheated oven.
Sprinkle the remaining walnuts over the spread.
Bake for 45 -50 mins.The time can vary depending on the oven.So check periodically after 40 mins .a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle should come clean.

You can Enjoy this bread as breakfast or a snack along with tea.
Happy Baking.