Kimbell Banana Bread

The Kimbell flour company's attempt at cake may have been a bust, but maybe they can do better with banana bread!

Banana-Nut Bread 2 cups flour ½ tsp salt ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon (or more if desired) ½ cup shortening* ⅔ cup sugar 2 eggs ¼ cup buttermilk or sour cream 2 ripe bananas, mashed 1 cup pecans Heat oven to 350°. Grease a loaf pan. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. Cream the sugar and shortening. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Then alternately add the milk and the dry ingredients. Mix in the bananas and nuts. Pour into the pan and bake until the center springs back when lightly pressed, about an hour. *Or butter, or oleo Source: Kimbell flour canister, probably 1940s or 1950s

I made this purely because we had two bananas slowly blackening on the countertop, and the recipe calls for exactly that. At first I was very happy to keep our grocery money out of the dump. Then I realized: am I really economizing if I throw a lot of flour and eggs after nearly-rotten fruit?

Because I didn't want to make bland banana bread, I used oleo instead of shortening. A lot of older recipes use the word "shortening" to mean "any solid fat," so it's probably period correct. But mostly, I distrust shortening unless I am brushing it onto a hot waffle iron. It does not seem like it came from this good earth. 

I also added some uncalled-for cinnamon and vanilla because I could tell we would need it.

We are told to use "well beaten" eggs. Instead of getting out a little bowl for this, I figured the eggs would be well beaten by the time our mixer was done with them. We may have a dishwasher, but that doesn't mean I need to fill it as often as possible.

Even though I didn't add nuts, I will give the Kimbell Flour people credit: they explicitly call for pecans instead of walnuts. Pecans are what walnuts wish they could be. And they are so versatile: if you wish you had walnuts, simply let your pecans go rancid! But even through the Kimbell people got their nuts right, I just do not like nuts in cake.

I was going to put the batter into a loaf pan as specified, but cupcakes suddenly seemed like a better idea. After baking, I chose not to ice them. You see, this recipe is called banana bread. It is not banana cake. Therefore, these are not cupcakes but muffins. Therefore they are a healthy breakfast.

They baked up nicely, but in full disclosure a lot of them had deep holes on top. I figured anyone who complained didn't want muffins. (There were no complaints.)

All in all, these weren't bad. I didn't have to discreetly drop them into the trash after a few days. But like so many muffins, these were not as good as I hoped. They were so bland that I could have convincingly lied and said they're good for you. 

But with that said, this recipe has a really nice pound cake texture. I don't think the Kimbell people can top Mrs. Kahn or the Slovak-American Ladies Association, but I didn't violently scribble out Kimbell's banana bread like I did their marble cake.