Recipe: Banana bread 8 April 2008 9:03 am
Posted by Tracy in : cheese, baking, breakfast, dessert, recipes, friends, books, vegetarian, cooking , trackbackI was going to save this recipe for later in the week, but Liz asked nicely, so there ya go. My banana bread recipe is adapted from the one in the original Moosewood Cookbook, which is actually a variation on their carrot cake recipe. Seriously — “Banana Bread” appears on the opposite page from “Carrot Cake” as a slightly-too-long list of substitutions which makes for really tricky recipe reading, especially considering the original recipe makes two loaves and we only have one loaf pan (a situation I hope to someday fix, but today is not that day, and anyway I much prefer having a base recipe that’s easy to double, instead of having to divide everything by two all the time). So. Without further ado, here’s Tracy and Peter’s take on banana bread, as copied into my beloved spiral-bound recipe notebook for convenience, because generally the way this gets made is me reading the recipe to Peter, who makes all the magic happen.
Banana Bread
Time: 1 1/2 hours.
Yield: 1 loaf (6-8 servings).
What You Need (Ingredients and Equipment)
- oven
- 1 9×5 inch baking pan, greased
- wire rack for cooling finished bread on (optional but nice)
- 1 cup well-mashed ripe banana, soaked in 1/2 cup strong black coffee
- 3/4 cup butter (salted or unsalted are both fine in this case)
- 7/8 cup packed brown sugar (3/4 cup plus 2 TB, if you prefer)
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon amaretto (or almond extract or more vanilla if that’s all you’ve got)
- 1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind (optional but awesome if you have it)
- 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt (or 1 teaspoon kosher salt)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
What You Do
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, grease the baking pan, mash together banana and coffee (or puree them in the blender if you don’t mind washing it).
Beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. When it’s fluffy, stir in the vanilla (and almond extract or amaretto, if using) and orange rind (again, if using).
Whisk together flour, soda, powder, and seasonings. Add these dry ingredients to the egg-sugar mixture, 1/2 to 1 cup at a time, alternating with the banana-coffee mixture, but definitely beginning and ending with the dry mixture, then the nuts. Don’t overmix — the batter just needs to be combined, not beaten, which will kill the leavening action.
Spread the batter in the greased pan, then bake at least 60 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean (we start testing at 50 minutes but it’s never been done in less than an hour). Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes before tipping it out to cool for at least an hour more before slicing.
Notes
Peter makes this in the stand mixer, and totally disregards all the stuff about mixing the dry ingredients beforehand, let alone alternating them in with the wet ingredients. It freaks me out, but hasn’t produced inedible results yet. (Last month he even made a gluten-free version using buckwheat flour, but that variation still needs a bit of refinement.) Victor, you could probably add half a cup of chocolate chips along with the walnuts — I’m not going to test that variation because I’m not a fan of the banana-chocolate flavor mix, but if you give it a shot, let me know how it turns out. If your banana bread lasts more than a day, you should store leftovers wrapped in foil at room temperature (don’t wrap it while it’s still warm! The steam will condense as it cools and make it soggy!) If it somehow lasts more than two days, you might want to store it in the fridge, or even the freezer. Finally, banana bread makes a great breakfast, and loves butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese as toppings. I’m just saying.
Comments»
Thanks! The coffee is a scintillating addition. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Because there’s nothing a sleep-deprived household likes more than fresh baked goods. Or a reason to make coffee.
Made it this afternoon. Delicious, but I didn’t wait the full hour before slicing into it. Do you really expect that kind of self-control from me?
Hi Liz! I’m still happy to read about your successful, weeks later. (And yeah, self-control, schmelf control. Warm banana bread just melts the butter or cream cheese better. Yum.) And yay!