Banana-Pear Quickbread

This is not a Lenten bread, but it is delicious. I first came across this recipe from a friend on an online cooking group, but it had much more sugar. It seemed like a lot, but I tried it that way and, no joke, when I put it on the cooling racks, it dripped syrup through the rack to the counters. Then I reduced the sugar by a quarter and found it to be much, much better, in my opinion. If your pears are really sweet, reduce the sugar to 1/2 a cup. Though it is wonderful baked as a loaf, it can also be baked in a bundt pan and is quite pretty that way.

1 1/4 cups pastry or all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, cooled
3 mashed overripe bananas
2 beaten eggs
2 small or 1 medium pear, peeled and sliced

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a loaf pan generously and set aside.

Whisk flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

Add butter, mashed banana and beaten eggs and mix until moistened (a few lumps are fine). Fold in the pear slices into the batter. Pour into pan and bake about an 55 - 60 minutes, until a sharp knife or toothpick comes out clean if you poke it in the center.

The texture is best if you wait at least a half hour before cutting into this, but I don’t blame you if you insist on having hot bread with maybe a little butter.

Labels: Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen