Easy Banana Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

There's an excellent crop of grapes this year on the grape arbour at the back of the garage.  The vine is Candice which produces sweet-tart seedless grapes that are small and pinkish - perfect for making raisins.  Raccoons permitting, there might also be an excellent crop of raisins!  I still have lots of last year's raisins as well as a bunch of over-ripe bananas, so it's time to make banana bread.

This is one of the easiest recipes for banana bread I've found.  Since I always seem to have over-ripe bananas on hand, I generally double the recipe, cut the loaves in half and freeze for later use.  The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of sugar, but since I add raisins, I cut the sugar back to 1/2 cup.  The original recipe didn't call for the addition of raisins or walnuts, but we like it this way.

Easy Banana Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

2 eggs
1/3 cup butter
2 ripe bananas, peeled and broken into pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Combine eggs, butter, bananas and sugar in a food processor (or blender).  Process for 30 seconds or until smooth.  Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Add nuts and raisins.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir only until combined.  Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.  (I usually wind up baking it for 60 minutes) Turn out of pan to cool on a rack.  Allow to cool thoroughly before you slice.  Freezes well.