RECIPE

Old-Fashioned Banana Bread

• Recipe by Lisa Ritter

This extraordinarily simple and tasty banana bread (with a moist center and crispy crust) is a Ritter family heirloom. “The recipe has been in our family for generations,” Lisa Ritter says.

• Make-Ahead
• Vegetarian

Ingredients

1. Unsalted butter
2. 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3. 1 teaspoon baking soda
4. Pinch of salt
5. 2 large eggs, beaten
6. 1/2 cup canola oil
7. 1 cup sugar
8. 2 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
9. Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch metal loaf pan. In a medium bowl, whisk the 1 1/4 cups of flour with the baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil, sugar and mashed bananas. Stir the banana mixture into the dry ingredients.
2. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for about 50 minutes, until the bread is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool for 15 minutes, then turn the bread out onto the rack and let cool completely. Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar, cut into slices and serve.

Make Ahead

The bread can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 1 week.