Eat A Chiquita

Ronnie’s Banana Bread Story

Ever since I can remember, there have been wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen. Whether in my grandma’s kitchen or my mom’s. In fact, in our humongous family, it could be anyone’s kitchen.

As a kid, I was fascinated by putting so many different ingredients in a bowl and turning it into something you could eat. Kind of like chemistry for your taste buds.

On one of my many visits with my Grandma Josefa, I wandered into her kitchen and tugged on her apron. Of course there was this huge communication gap with language. She spoke fluent Spanish and this 4 year old little Chiquita only spoke English. But she knew somehow that I wanted to get on the step stool and watch her bake. On this particular day, she was making banana bread.

Instinctively I could guess what to do to help her. Crack the eggs for her, mix up whatever she had put in the large mixing bowl. But greasing the pan back in those days was more involved, but perhaps more fun as a kid. We didn’t having PAM or any other type of cooking spray. We had to take butter and rub it all over the inside of the pan, then take flour and dust it all over the inside of the pan. This technique prevented your bread, or other baked dessert from sticking. Ingenious I thought. Nowadays we just spray.

Back in the day, people made everything from scratch. Why? Because there really was no other alternative. However, it is still cheaper, tastier and healthier for you in the long run. Any well-trained chef would agree.

And trust me, not everyone can make really good banana bread. Mostly, it tends to come out too dry and not enough flavor. The recipe that my grandma gave me seems to be full proof. I have no idea where she got it, but I never saw her open a cookbook, she just went for it and experimented. Hence, a very delectable outcome.

I have made banana bread with all different sorts of nuts and other died fruit and it’s really good. But my favorite is the original. Basic banana bread, it reminds me of my little Chiquita days in my grandma’s kitchen and it just doesn’t get better than that.

Ronnie’s Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour (I use white-unbleached, but whole wheat is better for you)
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening (any vegetable shortening is best)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed “Chiquita” bananas (the more ripe the sweeter the bread)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9X5 inch loaf pan (using cooking spray is best and it‘s the easiest).

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt thoroughly.In a separate bowl mix together sugar, shortening and eggs, then bananas.

3. Pour into first bowl, blend together until smooth. Using gloved hands (or ungloved if you want to add your own essence) is most effective in combining all ingredients. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake until firmly set.

4. The center may crack on the top and that’s okay. That’s how you will know that the center of the bread will be done. If it’s firm to a light touch, it’s done. But to be absolutely sure, remove pan from oven and stick a toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, “perfecto”, if dough is on the toothpick, you’ll have to bake it a little while longer.

5. When your bread is finished baking, remove from oven and let cool, before slicing. If you slice it when it’s still too warm, it’ll fall apart on you. And that doesn’t make for nice pretty banana bread slices.

Options:

For people who like a varied banana bread you can add any or all of the following to your dough before baking:

• ½ cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds…etc)
• ½ cup chopped dates
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest (fancy word for orange rind)