And there was banana bread... And it was good....

Much happier times...

I've bounced back from my tale of woe and ickiness from earlier in the day. A trip to the store was made. Butter was purchased. Banana bread was attempted again.

And I'm glad to report that it's good. It is really, really good! Thank you so much, Myra, from MyLittleMochi - I've been looking for years for a really kickass banana bread recipe, and thanks to you I've found it!

Myra's recipe can be found here - and you should check it out because not only is her photo styling is far superior to mine (darn dark house!), you'll probably want to adhere to her original version. I'll admit to tweaking it a little, just because I know the taste preferences of my own family. I like pecans more than walnuts, and I've got this weird quirk where no matter how much vanilla a recipe calls for, I'll always add more. Below I'll post what I did, with the changes that I made to Myra's recipe in bold.

And now I'm off to watch "Rescue Me", and finish my still-warm piece of banana bread... Life can be good...

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Banana Bread
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
several grates of fresh nutmeg (See Note Below)
1 cup mashed overripe bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Streusel Topping (see below)

In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla well. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until fluffy.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a separate bowl. Sift a small amount of flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture, add a small amount of sour cream, and a small amount of mashed bananas and gently stir only until ingredients are mixed (do not over mix). Repeat step until all ingredients are incorporated into butter/sugar mix. Gently stir in chopped nuts.
Pour into a large greased loaf pan (or 2 smaller ones), then sprinkle streusel topping over surface.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. (Note: depending on the loaf pan size you use, and the hotness of your oven, the baking time may be a lot less.)


Streusel Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter (I recommend a pasty blender) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle this topping over surface of banana bread once it has been poured into the loaf pan.

Note about nutmeg:
I can't give you an exact measurement of grated nutmeg, because nutmeg is one of the few areas where I am a food snob. If you're going to use nutmeg, get whole nutmegs and freshly grate them. If you don't have fresh nutmeg, just skip it. SeriouslyÂ… Life is too short to use pre-grated nutmeg. Particularly since it always looks and tastes like the crumbliest little bits you would empty out of a pencil sharpener...