Go Bananas

For wintertime baking, nothing beats bananas. Perfect for breads, cookies and cakes, the banana may be nature’s most versatile fruit. Harvested while still green and firm, it comes with its own wrapper—the ultimate in convenience food. And best of all, you can tell how ripe it is just by looking at it.

The recipe for the three-layer Banana Nut Cake, sent to us by Nina Grizzard of Las Cruces, N.M., uses bananas not only in the cake but in the frosting as well. “This recipe was handed down through my family from my great-grandmother,” Grizzard says.

Ann Langenfeld of Burns, Ore., submitted the recipe for Banana Oatmeal Cookies. “This is a childhood favorite. My grandma would always make these cookies for my sisters and me. When I make these cookies, the way my home smells really brings back the memories of my grandma,” Langenfeld says.

As always, American Profile looks forward to receiving your recipes and sharing them with our millions of readers across the nation. Send your recipes, along with a color photograph of yourself, to Hometown Recipes, American Profile, 341 Cool Springs Blvd., Suite 400, Franklin, TN 37067.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

by Ann Langenfeld

High Cotton Food Styling & Photography

Printer Friendly Version
Do you like to print recipes and add them to your collection? You're in luck. Use our printer friendly version of this recipe.

email this recipe to a friend

buy our cookbooks

Find more recipes with:
banana , oatmeal , cookies , solid , vegetable

Ingredients

3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Mix shortening, sugar, egg and bananas well. Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.
2. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies.

Banana Nut Cake with Banana Nut Frosting

submitted by reader Nina Grizzard of Las Cruces, NM

Printer Friendly Version
Do you like to print recipes and add them to your collection? You're in luck. Use our printer friendly version of this recipe.

email this recipe to a friend

buy our cookbooks

Find more recipes with:
banana , nut , cake , frosting , mashed

Ingredients

Cake:
2 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Frosting:
2 mashed bananas
3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray three 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray.
2. Cream sugar and shortening together with an electric mixer. Add mashed banana, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add to banana mixture alternately with buttermilk. Beat 3 minutes on medium speed. Stir in pecans.
4. Pour batter into pans. Bake 30 minutes.
5. To make the frosting, beat together bananas, butter and confectioners’ sugar. Add additional confectioners’ sugar as needed to achieve spreading consistency. Stir in pecans.
6. Spread frosting on top of one layer, top with cake layer, frost top of that layer, top with final layer and frost top and sides.

Serves 16.

first appeared: 2/11/2007