Banana Bread: Yes, We Have No Bananas

I love banana bread!  Yet, I have had trouble finding a good recipe for it.  But today, my mom made a new banana bread recipe and it turned out GREAT!  Even though I didn't make this recipe, I wanted to share it with you today because I have been eating it!

Whenever I think of bananas I think of the original Sabrina movie starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden.  A strange connection?  Not really, in the movie the character Sabrina goes on a date with Linus and they take a portable record player with them and play "Yes, We Have No Bananas."  I always thought the "yes" before the "no" was very odd, but it did make it memorable!

BANANA BREAD

5 bananas, unpeeled in their peels

2 c. white flour (or combination of 1/2 c. wheat and 1 1/2 c. white flour)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. melted butter, cooled

Topping

3 Tbl. brown sugar

2 Tbl. flour

4 tsp. butter

Pierce bananas with fork several times then lay on aluminum foil lined jelly roll pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes to caramelize the sugar in the bananas.  They will look black and ugly!  Set aside to cool.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and ginger in a bowl.  Set aside.

Combine eggs, sugar, and melted butter.

Spray bread pan(s) with Pam.  Use one large loaf or two medium loaf or four small loaf pans.

Pour liquid mixture into dry, barely mixing together.

Pour into bread pans.

Combine brown sugar and flour then work butter into dry ingredients to make topping.

Crumble the topping over the top of the loaves.

Back at 350 degrees for 25-45 minutes depending on the pan size.  Remove from oven when batter pulls away from sides of pans.  Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick or a sharp knife.  If comes out clean, the bread is done.

Casablanca: As Time Goes By

Casablanca is classic.  There's no other way of putting it.  Ingrid Bergman is beautiful and poised while Humphrey Bogart plays the tortured scorned lover so well.  Plus, the hats in Ingrid Bergman's wardrobe are amazing.  If only women still wore hats on a day-to-day basis.

So is "As Time Goes By" the main song of Casablanca.  Yet there are very few versions of the song in comparison to other main songs of classic movies.  Which is really a shame because "As Time Goes By" is a beautiful song.

So my recommendation is this: see the movie and check out the song!  You'll be so glad you did.

Here's Frank Sinatra singing "As Time Goes By."