Tomorrow, April Fool’s Day, sees the birth anniversary of two non-foolish friends of mine. So Happy Birthday to shebit! Sorry I didn’t make a scrolling thingy for you! And Happy Birthday to big sis, aka judiang! Hope you both have a great day (and I’ll see you this weekend, Judi! Woohoo!)

Yesterday I posted about a successful experiment in the making of Banana Bread. warinbabylon asked for the recipe that I used, so I decided to post it today. The original recipe is one that I got from this website. It’s the first one on the page.

Banana Bread

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup Splenda
• 4 oz Egg Beaters or similar (2 eggs worth)
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 large)
• 2 cups flour (watch cat to make sure he doesn’t play in flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (get from neighbors if need be)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (ditto)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or more…)

Cream butter and Splenda together. Add Egg Beaters slowly, beating till smooth. Blend in mashed bananas. (Or add mash the bananas as you add them and then read the bit about the eggs… Ooops!)

In second bowl, stir flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt and nuts (after going next door to get the baking soda and baking powder). Add to banana mixture stirring only to moisten. Transfer to greased loaf pan. Bake in 350°F. oven for about 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on plate to cool (well, I have no cake rack). Cut pieces for self and mother. Wrap to store.

So if you compare both recipes, you’ll see very little variation. elsaf had warned me that the Splenda wouldn’t caramelize and the bread wouldn’t look the same color, but it’s weird – it actually turned out a nice color. Kind of orangy-brown on top. She had suggestions using honey and reducing the amount of fat by using less butter. I just had fun using butter, myself. I don’t often treat myself to butter, so I figured I’d splurge. Next time, however, I’ll try cutting down the fat a bit, just to see what it’s like. Assuming I don’t get all of my bananas eaten in time.

(A tip for those of you who love bananas – if you have an overly ripe banana but don’t have the time to make banana bread or banana smoothies or anything like that, remove the banana from the skin and freeze it. Mom says she does it all the time and they’re just fine for smoothies/bread/etc after that.)