Linda Ryan was one of my many neighborhood "aunties".
My parents built their house in a brand new subdivision when my sister was little. All the families who moved into the neighborhood had kids about the same age and were in the same phase of life, etc. When my sister was 14 (and all other neighbor kids were teens as well) my mom found out she was expecting me. With my arrival came the first baby the neighborhood ladies had seen in a long time; I was everyone's baby at that point, and I grew up with lots of aunties and uncles down the street.
Aunt Linda lived a few houses down and though I don't remember her making this recipe, whenever my mom would make it she would refer to it as Linda Ryan's banana bread.
What I love about this recipe
It is SO easy! No electric mixer required. And, since bananas are so cheap at Costco, we always seem to have some ripe bananas laying around. It does take about 55 minutes to bake in the oven, so it's usually something the littles and I make after Quinn heads off to school. They get a nice warm mid-morning snack, and I reheat a piece for Quinn when he gets home. I legit make this banana bread 2 times a week. The other great part of this recipe is that you can basically add whatever you want to it!
The recipe:
Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1+3/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp.baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a medium/large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork
- Mix in eggs
- Mix in the sugar and oil
- Add in the flower, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon; mix well
Now here's where the original recipe ends and my extras begin:
- Mix in any or all of these ingredients:
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup granola
- Pour batter (dough? I don't know) into an oiled loaf pan
- Top with a sprinkle of coconut flakes and brown sugar, if your heart desires
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, top will be beautifully cracked
- Cut a thick slice, top with a little butter, and enjoy!
So easy, Nora can do it!
I literally just give her a fork and she stirs as I add the ingredients (with hand on her hip because, you know, sass)
Tell me that's not beautiful!
Seriously, the perfect homemade little kid snack. And your house will smell WONDERFUL. And your kids will thank you, and will clean up the mess in the toy room for it.
*In this picture, you can see I used slivered almonds instead of walnuts, because that's all I had on hand. Clearly, this recipe can be changed any way you like - in the past I've added cubes of an unripe banana, dried banana chips, blueberries, and raisins. My kinda recipe!