Grandmothers and old church cookbooks hold the secrets to the best recipes in the world. Homemade baking is a love language, reflecting generations of wisdom and refined by decades of practice and mistakes. My mom is the grandma now, as her mother was and as I will be one day, and this banana bread recipe from the Kiantone Ladies Aid is the only one we ever use. It’s fortunate, that in most countries in the world, there is always a way to find bananas and sour milk! So here it is, the perfect loaf with or without nuts, and easy enough for kids to make too.

BANANA BREAD

Grease a large loaf pan, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix in a large bowl:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp sour milk (add a splash of vinegar to regular milk)
• 2-3 mashed bananas

In a separate large bowl, mix:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture, then gently turn with a rubber spatula until all the ingredients come together, being careful not to overmix. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan, and smooth out to the edges. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, until the top is not doughy at all. Sometimes the edges will look very brown, but this is okay! An underbaked banana bread is not good, and a little extra browning makes the outside sweet and crunchy.

Run a butter knife along the edges to loosen the sides when it comes out of the oven, then let it sit for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan.