Darci Hannah: I’m going to be honest here, although I bake quite a lot and try all sorts of recipes for interesting and delicious baked goods, to me a slice of good banana bread is the ultimate comfort food. Banana bread is not only my favorite quick bread, but it’s my go to baked good, especially when I purchase a bunch of bananas for the family and they go brown before we eat them. It happens quite a lot around our house, and I’m glad it does. Because when I have soft, brown bananas I know it’s time for banana bread.
I thought I had a good recipe for banana bread until I was watching an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Uncharted. In this episode Gordon was in Hawaii for a challenge with a local chef. I don’t really remember what competition dish he was making for the episode, because for me it was overshadowed by his little trip to a bakery in Hana known for their banana bread. The bread looked so delicious and buttery that I wanted to try it. However, flying to Hawaii was out of the question. Instead, I decided to find a recipe that looked like the Hana Banana Bread on the show. Many brown bananas later, I came across this recipe given to me by my dear friend, Sue Hanson. Sue and I worked at our public library together, and she’s a hiking buddy of mine. She’s a great baker too. When I made her banana bread recipe and took that first bite, I knew that this was the banana bread I’d been waiting my whole life for. It’s that good. I’ve made a few tweaks to the original recipe and thought I’d share it with you!
Best Banana Bread
Ingredients:
3 very ripe (black) bananas
1 cup sugar
1 ¼ cup flour
1 egg beaten
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
(1/2 cup walnuts and/or chocolate chips optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Put the flour in a large mixing bowl. Next add the sugar to the ripe bananas. Add the egg, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract. Give it a little stir then add the melted butter. Mix until the flour has been incorporated, but do not over mix the batter. Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for an hour or until done. Let cool and enjoy!
What is your favorite quick bread to make?
Darci Hannah is the bestselling author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, the Food & Spirits Mystery Series, the Very Cherry Mystery Series, and two works of historical fiction, The Exile of Sara Stevenson, and The Angel of Blythe Hall. Darci grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband and two dogs. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. Passionate about family, dogs, food, baking, history, books, lighthouses, laughter, good conversations, coffee, and the paranormal, Darci feels especially blessed to have found a way to combine her interests in the stories she writes. It brings her great joy to be able to share them with you.
A Spirited Supper at Dundoon Castle
By Darci Hannah
Book #2 in the Food & Spirits Mystery Series
When chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride got a role on the reality show Food & Spirits, she thought “spirits” meant cocktails. Instead, she’s cooking up dinners meant to tempt the departed to appear. And to her surprise, she’s discovered abilities to connect with the beyond—and crack murder cases . . .
Now that Bunny’s entrées come with a side of the Other Side, it comes in handy to have a grandma who’s friendly with the elderly owners of a haunted Scottish castle. During Bunny’s childhood she heard all about Dundoon’s bloody history and the “ghostly piper” who roamed the grounds—and soon she’ll be visiting the ancient place with her ghost hunter and psychic co-stars. The annual bagpipe competition in the late piper’s honor will make for some good footage as well.
After Bunny serves a feast fit for a 17th century king, including lamb chops with plenty of fresh herbs, she heads outdoors for the ghost hunt. But in the dark, dense fog, someone fatally plunges from the clifftop over the loch. The sound that follows is a mournful, otherworldly bagpipe . . . and once the body of another perished piper is retrieved, Bunny is determined to solve this Highlands homicide—and prevent a killer from getting off scot-free . . .
A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor
By Darci Hannah
Book #1 in the Food & Spirits Mystery Series
While filming at a haunted English manor, chef Bunny MacBride’s big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder in Darci Hannah’s new Food & Spirits cozy mystery series . . .
It isn’t how chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride imagined her own cooking show unfolding. But, if preparing historic meals with a modern flair is what it takes to get her cooking on the air, she can deliver, even if her dinner guest is a ghost. That’s the premise of the new reality TV show Food & Spirits, where Chef Bunny teams up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady to visit haunted locales around the world and tempt lingering spirits back to the table with a beloved meal. For their first episode, the Food & Spirits team sets off to investigate Bramsford Manor, a historic house turned famously haunted hotel, in picturesque Hampshire, England. The sprawling estate is said to be home to the Mistletoe Bride, a young woman who died in the 18th century, the victim of a tragic accident on her Christmas wedding night.
Bunny leaves the spectral search to the pros and focuses on the feast, creating a traditional English holiday wedding dinner, complete with a gorgeous prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and rustic apple tarts. But Bunny’s task is made more difficult when someone steals a boning knife from her custom kit. Alas, when the blade finally turns up again—in the chest of an all-too-human dinner guest—Bunny’s woes only grow as she is named a lead suspect in the case! Now, with a haunted house full of living residents, staff, and crew, Bunny will need the help of Brett, Giff, and her clairvoyant Grandma Mac, to solve this murder before the manor gains another ghost!
Coming this July!
Murder at the Campfire Cookout
By Darci Hannah
Book #7 in the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series
When Lindsey Bakewell leaves behind her lighthouse bakeshop, her boyfriend, Rory, and her Newfoundland dog, Wellington, for a glamping trip with her mother in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the bears leave them alone—but a killer doesn’t. . .
Converting the old Beacon Point lighthouse into a bakery is as adventurous as Lindsey cares to get. Her mother, Ellie, a former 80s fashion model, likes her creature comforts even more—until she sees a business opportunity for her Beacon Harbor fashion boutique when she’s invited by the Mitten Kittens Glamping Club on a woodsy getaway.
Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers. Ellie insists Lindsey come along to win the campfire cookout contest. Campfire cooking has come a long way from bacon and beans. Soon Lindsey is making pizza, berry cobbler, and gooey Carmelita camping bars.
But the festive spirit is soon dampened when a body is found in Ellie’s camper. It seems like an accidental death until everyone’s tires are slashed and it’s clear the glampsite has become a crime scene. With no cell service to call for help, it’s up to Lindsey to smoke out the killer around the campfire . . .
Because no one is out of the woods yet.
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