Gift Idea: Planted Banana Nut Bread

The other day I was trying to think of fun ways to give gifts. I thought and thought, and wondered if I could bake bread in a terra cotta pot. I figured I could because that's what they cooked with a billion years ago. I asked my mother-in-law what she thought, and she said it should be fine. So I tried it...and it worked! So here it is, friends. Planted Banana Nut Bread. (I assume you can use any bread recipe you want, but this is what I did):



Directions:
(yields five medium potted loaves)
difficulty level: easy

-buy five meduim-sized terra cotta flower pots ($0.45 @ Wal-Mart). Make sure to take off any stickers and wash well. Stuff a small ball of wax paper into the drain hole in the bottom of the pot.



-make bread acording to directions:

recipe by Dorthella Johnson (found in a church cookbook)

Kona Banana Bread

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (or 1/2 c butter, 1/2 c. Crisco)
3 eggs
6 very ripe bananas
2 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup broken walnuts

Mash bananas in separate bowl. Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs. Add bananas and beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix only until smooth. Stir in chopped nuts. Pout into 2 loaf pans (*OR SEPARATE INTO 5 MEDIUM SIZED FLOWER POTS). MAKE SURE THEY'RE GREASED WELL. Put flower pots on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when poked in.







-Let cool on a cooling rack





Cut five 8.5x8.5 squares of wax paper. Put over the top of the bread, and fasten with pretty ribbon. Give as a fun gift to a neighbor! (if you try this idea out, please let me know how it goes...thanks!)