Herself's Recipes

Grandma’s Banana Tea Cake

This is a handwritten recipe I found in a box of recipes my grandmother had.

1 3/4 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup mashed bananas ( 2 or 3 )
1 cup walnuts

Cream the shortening and the sugar.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Add flour, salt, soda and powder alternately with mashed bananas mixing as you go.
Add in walnuts

Bake in loaf pan @350′ for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

While bananas and sweet breads have been around for a very long time. Banana bread is believed to have been discovered in the 20th century. It is thought to have been discovered by a depression era housewife looking to make a few dollars.

This recipe can be used to make plain shortbread cookies or you can use it to make a fruit tart, Both are excellent.

2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon peel
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg

Combine all the dry ingredients and mix by hand until blended.
Add remaining ingredients and either in a food processor or with your hands mix the dough until well mixed and forms a ball. ( It will be very thick )

For biscuits:
Spread the dough in a 9×13 pan to about 1/2″ thick
Bake at 350′ until just turning golden on edges ~30 mins
slice into biscuits, usually about 1″ by 2″

For tart:
Divide dough into 2 equal parts
Press evenly one half of dough into a well oiled pie pan
Spread ~6oz of jam (Cherry, Strawberry, or Raspberry works well) over the top of the dough
roll out remaining dough and slice into 1/2″ strips
decorate top of tart with strips of dough
Back at 350′ until golden brown about ~30 minutes.

In earlier times butter was thought of as food for the poor. The middle classes did not begin using butter in food until the 16th century when shortbread first appears in the Scottish diet. Ground oats were added to the shortbread in that time instead of flour

.