Banana Nut Bread (Vera Jones)

Today was perfect for preparing this recipe, because I happened to have five overripe bananas and buttermilk left over from making pancakes last week. Also, I've been wanting to bake something nice for the morning traffic cop at my daughter's school, because he does a really amazing job of directing traffic every day, in every kind of weather.

To my surprise, my first thought when I tried this banana bread was "This tastes just like my mom's banana bread!" (which I love).

So I looked up my mom's recipe, and sure enough, the ratios of sugar, oil, eggs, flour, and nuts are the same, only this recipe is exactly double my mother's and yields three loaves instead of one. There are slight differences: my mom uses baking powder and not buttermilk; she also adds cinnamon and vanilla, and does not include dates. However, apparently, the differences don't significantly affect the overall outcome.

What is it with dates in these old recipes?? So many breads and cakes in this yellow box call for dates. I don't hate them, but they don't do a lot for me.

I wasn't sure what size loaf pan to use. I bought a 3-pack of cheap aluminum loaf pans at Wal-Mart, which are barely 7 inches long, and I had enough leftover batter to make a half-dozen muffins. So, I think, this recipe is supposed to make three loaves using 8-inch loaf pans.

Other than that, I think the recipe is fairly self-explanatory, and definitely worth making if you want a sweet, moist, rich banana bread!

(Note: there were six muffins, but we ate two of them right away - we hadn't had breakfast yet!)
I still prefer the added cinnamon and vanilla flavors of my mom's recipe, so I'll include them as optional ingredients below.
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Banana Nut Bread
(from Vera Jones)

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 cup Criso (vegetable oil)
4 eggs
5 bananas - mashed
2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp boiling water
6 tbsp buttermilk (or 6 tbsp sweet milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice)*
(optional 2 tsp vanilla)
(optional 1 tsp cinnamon)
4 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts
1 pkg chopped dates (8 oz?)

* or substitute 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt for buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8-inch loaf pans.
Blend sugar and oil. Add eggs. Mix soda and water, add to mixture. Add buttermilk (or baking powder and salt). Add cinnamon and vanilla, if desired. Blend in flour. Add chopped nuts and dates.
Bake 1 hour 20 minutes.