Stephenson’s Banana Bread

Submitted by: Cathy Salter

My Food Story:

 In 1974, years before moving to Missouri, I dined at the old Stephenson’s Apple Farm Restaurant, located in an orchard on Highway 40 east of Kansas City.  By then, a red barn superstructure had engulfed the original 1870 stone structure where the restaurant opened April 16, 1946.  That evening, I bought a spiral-bound cookbook filled with Stephenson’s family recipes their customers loved.  This Missouri culinary treasure includes the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever tasted.  Its secret ingredient is buttermilk used to activate the baking soda.  For decades I’ve shared loaves of this banana bread with friends and family, baked in kitchens in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Bishop Farm in New Hampshire, London, and Madrid.  When a farmers’ market opened in Ashland, MO, I shared loaves with our local community.  And whenever our granddaughters and grandson visit Boomerang Creek from Spain, we make Stephenson’s banana bread for them to take back home to Madrid.  Shared recipes like this one and their stories nourish and connect us. 

Banana Bread

(Makes on large loaf or 3 mini loaves)

Source:  Stephenson’s Apple Farm Restaurant Cookbook (1946-2007)

Ingredients 

• ½ cup shortening

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 cups unsifted flour

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 tablespoon buttermilk

• 4 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 ¼ cups)
  

Instructions:

Cream shortening and sugar in a large bowl.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sift together flour and salt in another bowl.  Blend into the egg mixture.  In another bowl, add baking soda to buttermilk.  Mix in with the mashed bananas.  Blend into flour mixture lightly.  Do not overmix.  Pour into greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. 

Bake 350 degrees for about an hour. If using three mini loaf pans, bake about 35 minutes.