The Comforting Recipe That Betty White Shared In 1955 Is As Iconic As She Is

For seven years, the legendary Betty White played her most renowned role, the hilariously dim-witted but lovable Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls." Born and raised in the fictional town of St. Olaf, Minnesota, Nylund occasionally created her hometown favorite recipes in the kitchen, including fish balls and herring pie. And, of course, all the main characters on the comedy show adored late-night slices of cheesecake. But in real life, Betty White wasn't one to spend much time cooking. In fact, she famously admitted that she only ever went into the kitchen to feed her dog. But in 1955, White shared a recipe for banana bread for a Fisher's Blend flour advertisement, and the recipe has remained popular with bakers for its comforting flavor and simplicity.

Fans find the recipe easy to prepare and straightforward, moist, and perfectly sweet, with just the right amount of crunch from the addition of walnuts. White's banana bread comes together like many other similar recipes: the dry ingredients are combined in a bowl, and then the wet ingredients — which include mashed banana, egg, milk, oil, and vanilla — are stirred in. The batter is poured into a greased loaf pan and baked for 50 minutes.

Betty White's comedic prowess earned her millions of fans. Even in interviews and live appearances, she never seemed to take herself too seriously and was refreshingly honest about who she was. In an age of celebrity-penned cookbooks, you'd never find one written by White, because not only did she not cook very much, but her favorite foods were not what most would call nutritionally-admirable. During an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," White shared that one of her favorite dishes was white toast with fried bologna, peanut butter, and lettuce, a concoction she called "to die for." White went on to say how much she loved peanut butter (via Facebook). Come to think of it, swirling some peanut butter in her banana bread would actually be delicious.

Among her other favorites were vodka, hot dogs, potato chips, Diet Coke, and Red Vines. When it came to her diet, she told People, "I try to avoid anything green. I think it's working," which was undoubtedly a nod to the fact that she was 99 years old when she gave the interview. Funnily enough, there doesn't appear to be a record of her saying that banana bread of any kind was one of her favorite foods. Whether she ate her own recipe or not, it's a good one to keep on hand for breakfast, snacks, or dessert. Make your banana bread perfect by decoding your bananas.