Banana Bread, Version 2

I just couldn't wait for the throw down with my sister, I just couldn't let the ripened bananas go to waste. and I couldn't wait any longer to use the new pumpkin loaf pan my brother-in-law sent me for my birthday. So I had to make a decision. Make another loaf of banana bread using the adapted version of Flour's recipe or listen to my sister and make the recipe she says was perfect. Which turned out to be a recipe she had modified. So I half listened to my sister. I made what I am now calling Banana Bread, Version 2 because, of course, I too had to make my own adaptations.

Why was I so reluctant to listen to my sister? Anyone with a sibling knows the answer to that question, however, beyond the sibling rivalry decisions we make, the written reviews for this recipe on Epicurious were in my opinion 'all over the place'. A few said the banana bread collapsed when it baked. With my week long wait time for bananas to ripen, the last thing I wanted to make was a banana bread that didn't look bakery perfect. But my curiosity for tasting what my sister believed was the perfect banana bread needed to be satisfied. And since the recipe was rather simple and didn't require the use of a mixer, I thought 'okay I'm game, what do I have to lose?' (especially since I was my own judge and jury and if it didn't turn out, no one would be the wiser). The only issue would be coming up with a reasonable explanation for why I did not make this banana bread when pressed by my sister. And reasonable would not be 'our tastes in baked goods are not always in sync' (although that would be mostly true).

I wasn't going to post two banana bread recipes in one week (like how crazy is that). Which meant I taking many photos as I was baking. Just a few to text to my sister (call it a virtual thrown down of sorts). But after baking and tasting this banana bread, I thought you should be the one to decide which banana bread recipe version you want to make. Like version 1, this one was incredibly moist and also had a great denseness to it. I am not certain which one I like better yet. Will have to keep tasting them to see if a clear favorite emerges. Version 2 is definitely easier and requires less ingredients. That, in of itself, could be what influences your decision, especially those of you who subscribe to the 'less is more' way of thinking. Although you might want to make them both to decide for yourself!

And as you can see, this banana bread did not collapse (and I can't explain why that happened to others who have made this recipe although I have some ideas). Making this banana bread in the pumpkin mold from Williams-Sonoma certainly made it look even more beautiful. But I think the pumpkin bread  would also look beautiful made in 9"x 5" loaf pan.

Recipe
Banana Bread, Version 2 (slight adaptation of Aunt Holly's Banana Bread recipe shared on Epicurious)

Ingredients
3 1/2 ripened bananas mashed (or 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas)
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 heaping teaspoon of Saigon cinnamon
3/4 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Prepare a 9" x 5"  baking pan or Williams-Sonoma botanical pumpkin mold and set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, first mix together the banana, butter, vanilla, and egg until blended. Then add all of the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.
3. Scrap batter into prepared pan and smooth top.
4. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes or until a tester inserted into the bread comes out clean (Hint: if the banana bread springs back when you press lightly on it, it should be done. Just make sure to do this in the middle of the bread).
5. Cool on wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes and then unmold. Slice, serve and savor!
6. Tightly cover the leftovers. Storing the banana bread in the refrigerator will extend its' life. Warm a slice in the microwave or allow to come to room temperature before enjoying.

If you have ever moved you know how much work and stressful it can be. While nothing compares to moving from a house you have lived in for many, many years, moving after living in a house for as little as a year has its' own set of emotions. Sometimes it's not moving from one house to another that causes a little angst, it's moving from one city/town/state/country to another that has a way of tempering with the emotions of change. In less than two weeks (and yes I am counting the days so I can savor each of them), I will be packing up the farm house and heading back to the house in the midwest. Already I am missing things about the east coast town I am living in and I haven't even left yet. I am calling it the 'anticipation of loss' versus calling it the 'thankfulness for having had the time here'. Someday I will get to the thankfulness place, but I am definitely not there yet.

Yet, in spite of living in the farmhouse for a little over a year, it feels as if I have spent more time here. I had a connection to this house and this town the day I moved in. There are people back in the midwest whose vision of me is one best described as 'high maintenance, up town kind of girl'. Guess they could never see or know that I had another side of me (but I knew). Yes, I still like to shop and still like to collect things, but living here has only reaffirmed what I have always known. It is not the size of the house one lives in, it is how one makes a space a home. And over the course of the past fifteen months, it has been nothing less than thrilling to search for the things that would make the farmhouse into a warm, welcoming home. Antique shows (including a trip to Brimfield), antique shops, thrift stores, resale stores, yard sales and, yes of course, Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma were the places where I found all that I needed (and of course, I took just a few a things from the midwest home too). My attachment to these furnishings is as much connected to the hunt for them as it is to their simplistic beauty, in how they transformed the farmhouse, as well as my life here and the people who have come into it. But this move back to the midwest means letting go of almost all of these things. While I am trying to tell myself they are just things, this time these 'things' symbolize so much more to me.