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When I was young, my mom made banana nut bread, a lot. We all loved it. I remember it being a dark, dense, sweet bread, almost like cake. After I had a family of my own, I asked her for the recipe. She gave me two different ones, neither of which made the bread that I loved. Instead, they made a much lighter-colored bread that was more like bread and less like cake. It seems as though the recipe is lost. After searching online, I came across a recipe that claimed to be dark and dense so today I tried it out. It's close but not exactly the same. It's a little drier and a bit more spongy than I one I remember (or perhaps I mixed the batter too long?). The good thing is that the kids loved it. I'll give it one more try in a couple of months. It takes a while to collect 5-6 over ripe bananas in your freezer you know.

Banana Nut Bread
6 eggs
3 cups sugar
4 or 5 very ripe mashed bananas (I used 5)
3 tbsp. butter or Crisco (I used butter)
1 1/4 cup milk
3 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups flour
Nuts if desired

Lightly beat eggs and add sugar. Mix well. Add bananas and butter. I used very ripe, dark bananas. I throw them in the freezer when they are too ripe and they get really dark that way. Mix well. Then add the milk and mix again. Mix soda and salt with flour and add to mixture. I used my electric mixer for this, but keep it on a low speed. Don't beat it like you would for a cake. Stir in nuts. Grease pans. Fill pans 1/2 full. The recipes says to bake at 325° for 1 hour but I used large pans and mine took longer, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Test with toothpick in middle. Makes 2 large loaves or 3 to 4 small loaves. Cool completely before removing from pans.