Banana Bread w/ Toasted Walnuts & a Touch of Cinnamon

Banana bread is one of those foods that is good for breakfast, dessert, or for an afternoon snack. This recipe has toasted walnuts and a touch of cinnamon. I like to eat my banana bread either right out of the fridge or room temperature with some creamy butter on top. That’s it – not heated, not with jam or preserves, just with some butter. Banana bread is too delicious to taint with a bunch of toppings. Don’t skimp though, you must eat it with real butter. If you have margarine in your refrigerator, get up and go throw it in the garbage immediately.

[tweetthis]This banana bread is super simple and is a great surprise with the hint of cinnamon #recipe #foodblog[/tweetthis]

You can certainly make this recipe without any nuts, but I like the texture and additional flavor of the walnuts. Toast some raw walnuts in a dry skillet until slightly brown. Toasting them brings out the flavor and adds depth that you don’t get from raw nuts. Walnuts, in addition to being tasty, have a number of health benefits.

For the bananas, use overly ripe bananas. I like to consumer bananas on the green side, so I can never go through a bunch of bananas before some of them have gone too far for me to enjoy. My husband likes the overly ripe bananas, and I think he’s a weirdo for liking them that way. Banana Bread is a great use-up for overly ripe bananas, and when your bananas start to turn, you have a great excuse to bake some banana bread (as if an excuse is needed.)

Banana bread is one of those breads that just about everyone likes and it’s so simple to prepare! Aside from toasting the walnuts and mashing the bananas, you pretty much just mix everything together and toss it in the oven. Unlike other types of bread, there is no kneading or waiting for the dough to rise involved.

Ok, maybe physically tossing it into the oven is not the most brilliant idea, but it’s still a very simple bread to make. Just mix the ingredients, pour into a greased pan and bake in the oven.

When the bread out of the oven it’s golden brown and the house will smell like mom’s kitchen. My mom used to bake banana bread all the time when we were growing up, so when my house smells like banana bread, it smells like mom’s kitchen. Mom’s kitchen always had something cooking or baking and my siblings and I would always come downstairs when we smelled something yummy and would run down and find out what mom was cooking. Now my girls do the same, only they ask me, “making something for the blog?” They get extra excited when I say yes, because they know it’s something special. This whole blogging thing is really popular in my house, even with the extra time it takes away from the family. They love eating and testing! Having a hobby that benefits everyone in the house is a win-win!

Be sure to let it cool before removing from the pan and then dig in. It’s a dense bread and the toasted walnuts and cinnamon give it that extra something special that kicks it up a notch. Yes, I am an Emeril fan :).

I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and come back and leave a comment and let me know how you like it and snap a photo and tag #ketchumkitchen on Social Media. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen, where everything, without exception, is made from the ♥