Banana Bread topped with Peanut Butter Coconut Streusel.

This banana bread recipe is probably nothing special. It's my my mom's recipe and because of the bias of growing up eating it I think it's the best banana bread ever.  Now, my mom doesn't put streusel topping on her banana bread, but I have discovered streusel is so easy that I pretty much put it on all my muffins and pies, so why not banana bread.  The coconut? I just had some extra coconut flakes in my cupboard and couldn't think of anything better to do with them. I'm not going to lie, the banana bread was absolutely delicious with the streusel topping, but very, very messy. Next time I might try pouring my batter in a muffin tin and reducing the cooking time. The mess makes eating a muffin sound perfect compared to slicing a loaf of bread and having it crumble everywhere.

Banana Bread
3/4 Cup Shortening
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup ripe banana (about 2 medium bananas)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 cups flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt.
1 1/2 cup milk

Cream shortening and sugar.  Beat eggs until light and add to sugar mixture.  Mash bananas with the lemon juice and add to sugar mixture.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Quickly mix in with banana mixture.  Add milk to batter until slightly lumpy. Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans.

(I'll let you in on a secret; I mixed chocolate chips to one of my loaves. I love chocolate in my banana bread. I only added about 1/4 cup, if that. A little bit goes a really, really long way.)

Streusel Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs softened butter or margerine
2 Tbs peanut butter (if allergies are an issue you can substitute peanut butter with more butter or margerine)
1/2 cup shredded coconut flakes

Mix all ingredients together. It should be dry and crumbly. Generously top each unbaked banana bread loaf with streusel mix. Lightly  press the streusel topping into the batter. Bake at 375°F for 45-60 minutes, until bread is golden brown.