Leslie Harpold’s Banana bread recipe

Leslie Harpold was a magnificent person famous for lots of great things on the early internet and many people know her as the person that wrote the definitive Thank You Note how-to as well as her annual advent calendars each year.

I was lucky enough to know her a bit and got invited to a couple parties at her house when our time in San Francisco overlapped with one another. I remember once at a brunch-style mid-day party she made the most perfectly simple banana bread I'd tasted. I asked her for the recipe after the party and she sent it to me.

I posted this on Twitter a couple months ago and realized it was lost as a result of my stepping away from it. So I'm reposting it here. Enjoy, it's good stuff.

½ cup butter
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed over-ripe bananas (4 if they’re small)
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add bananas. Mix in flour, baking powder, soda, and salt slowly.

Fold in nuts at the end if added. Pour into a greased 8½” loaf pan and bake 45min to an hour or until the bread tests as done (sharp paring knife inserted into the center pulls out clean). Makes one loaf. Will keep well tightly wrapped and refrigerated or frozen.

It's really great toasted with butter or cream cheese on top. If it's nighttime and you want a wicked dessert, put a slab of it in the toaster oven to warm up and then put Nutella on top after it comes out.