Banana -Date-Walnut Bread

I got this really amazing book- The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking from the library. It has tons of recipes from appetizers to desserts. It happens quite a lot of times that we end up with really ripe bananas. And it feels bad to just dump them in trash. So of the times I have them, nearly half the time I end up making Sheera just so that I don't have to throw them away. I always thought of making banana bread instead, but never actually made it because sometimes I did not have eggs and other times some other ingredient. Anyway... to cut the story short, while I was reading this book, I came across a recipe for banana bread and immediately thought of two ripe bananas that were sitting in the kitchen. So here is how I made it.

Ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup chopped dates (optional)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Before your start, preheat oven to 350 F. Mix well all purpose flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl mix butter, sugar and eggs and beat until light and frothy. Next, add mashed bananas, dates and walnuts and mix well. Add the previously mixed dry ingredients slowly and in batches so that it doesn't form lumps. Mix until you get a smooth mixture. Grease a loaf pan and pour in the mixture. Bake for about 50-60 minutes until you have a golden brown and firm bread. Take out and let it sit for about 10 mins and then cool on a cooling rack before cutting. I followed the recipe from the book, but used butter instead of shortening.

I made this for the first time and it turned out great. I just wish I had added little more dates. But anyway it tastes great. May be next time I will try using whole wheat flour and see how it turns out.