Baking season begins: Banana bread, family recipes and a holiday fruitcake worth revisiting

Fresh from the oven, the delicious aroma of banana nut bread fills the air. I don’t know what came over me, but I had the urge to haul out my battered old Betty Crocker cookbook, and because we had a couple of bananas on the verge of being too soft to slice onto our cereal, I thought, what the heck?

While we waited for the finished product to cool enough for us to give it the old taste test, I took advantage of the moment to look over similar recipes. What has come over me? Was it the pictures in my latest Good Housekeeping magazine of Christmas treats even I can make in my own kitchen? Was it the cookie-baking contest I happened across while watching late-night TV? Was it my bathroom scale that said, oh, phooey on it, you can start that diet after the new year like you always do? Go ahead, let the baking begin!

Will it be quick breads that don’t require yeast? I’ve not had good luck with yeast breads. There are so many options — pumpkin bread or pumpkin rolls? Lemon or cranberry bread? Something more exotic?

As a sidebar, the word “exotic” brings to mind one of my early adventures in cooking a meal for my new husband. I found a yummy-looking burger in my Cooking for Two cookbook having a taste of the islands tucked inside in the form of a pineapple slice unbeknownst to young Bill, who, one bite in, said, “What the …?” and “Please don’t ever make this again.” He may not have said please; it’s been awhile.

We may have some trust issues when it comes to my kitchen adventures. And believe me, I’ve given him numerous opportunities to take over. But he’s an old dog and not about to learn any new tricks at this stage of the game. He’ll just have to trust me.

Now, back in the recipe box his mother left behind, I find the famous fruitcake recipe she only made at Christmas. Up until I tried hers, my only taste of fruitcake was one of those prepackaged — who knows how long ago — dried-up, tasteless, gift-packaged treats that came from a catalog. I was hesitant to try anything called “fruitcake.” But she unwrapped her creation from layers of foil encasing orange-juice-soaked cheesecloth wrapped lovingly around a nut- and dried-fruit-filled loaf of very moist quick bread that didn’t look anything like those catalog fruitcakes.

She said, “Try it. Put some Cool Whip on it.” I was a goner from that early Christmas on. I let it be her thing. I knew it was labor intensive, and with two little ones underfoot, I felt I didn’t have the time needed, especially as the holidays neared. And I’m sad to say I’ve not tried it to this day. Frankly, it sounds like a lot of work to present to my family, who will likely turn up their noses like I did all those years ago. But for the more adventurous, here’s Iris Foster’s recipe for Christmas fruitcake. Let me know how it turns out. I’ll be nibbling on some banana nut bread and sipping my tea.

White Fruit Cake

5 eggs ½ lb. butter 1¾ cups flour 1 cup white sugar ½ tsp. baking powder ¾ lb. glazed cherries 1 lb. glazed pineapple 4 cups pecans 1 oz. bottle vanilla extract ½ oz. bottle lemon extract

Cream butter. Add sugar and eggs. Beat and blend well. Add chopped nuts and fruit, which have been mixed with part of the flour. Sift remaining flour with baking powder, then add to batter and egg mixture. Add flavorings. Pour into a greased, paper-lined tube pan or loaf pan. Place in a cold oven and bake at 250 degrees for 3 hours. Cool in pan on cake rack. (Small loaf pan may be done in 2½ hours.) Soak towel (she used cheesecloth layers) in orange juice and wrap cake in it.

She wrapped the final product in foil to contain the sticky — for lack of a better word — mess.

Serve with a dollop of Cool Whip if desired. Or, you’ve come this far, go for real whipped cream! Good luck.