Banana Nut Bread

When baking, I have crap spread out everywhere but it's usually pretty well organized. I have my different little "stations" for the various stages of the baking. Today I made banana nut bread to give out to a few families. This is by far the best banana nut bread recipe I have ever came across and I will share it with you.

Special Banana Nut Bread

3/4 C butter, softened (and now that I'm typing this out I realize I didn't put in enough butter, oy vey!)
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas
1/2 t vanilla extract
3 C all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 C chopped pecans, divided

Orange Glaze:

1 C powder sugar
3 T orange juice
1 t grated orange peel

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add bananas and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and blend. Fold in one cup pecans. Divide batter into two greased loaf pans. Sprinkle with remaining pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (It usually takes mine 1 hour.) In a small bowl, whisk glaze ingredients; drizzle over loaves. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.



The pecans on top get really crunchy and makes it soooooooooo good.




This is how I packaged them up. I wrapped the loaf in plastic wrap then used a piece of card stock to make a sleeve. Tie it up with ribbon, add a tag and voila! a great gift to give.