Mark Bittman’s Banana Bread

Adapted from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter, plus some for greasing the pan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork until smooth

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 grated dried unsweetened coconut



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

Mix together the dry ingredients. Cream the butter and beat in the eggs and bananas (this blogger creamed in the sugar as well out of habit – it worked fine). Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients; do not mix more than necessary. Gently stir in the vanilla, nuts, and coconut.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. A toothpick inserted in the center of the bread will come out fairly clean, but banana bread is excessively moist compared to other breads. Do not overcook. col on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. To store, wrap in waxed paper.