I’m going to try banana bread tomorrow for the first time and found this recipe on the web. It’s the most basic one I could find, but any banana bread experts who want to add, subtract, substitute or tweak the recipe?
It’s a gift for my mom so I want it to be good
here it is:
Banana Bread Recipe
INGREDIENTS
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
METHOD
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.
I make a fantastic orange-banana loaf - I add a couple of tablespoons of orange juice concentrate, one teaspoon of lemon juice, and the zest of an orange to the batter, then bake as usual (it takes a little longer to bake because it’s juicier - I often end up tinfoiling around the edge to let the centre finish baking). The orange adds a wonderful flavour to the banana.
That’s exactly the same recipe I used when I made my last loaf. It was delicious, although somewhat wet. I used 4 bananas and I think it was 1 too many. If you like nuts, you can add some chopped walnuts or pecans. A cup would be about right.
These are the BEST banana muffins/bread ever. Buttermilk is the key.
STREUSEL TOPPING
3/4 cups brown sugar
2-3 tablespoons margarine or butter
2-3 tablespoons flour
Cut together ingredients with a fork until combined and crumbly.
MUFFIN BATTER
1 1/3 cups light brown sugar, packed firm
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla
2 1/2 cups - 2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
tiny pinch salt
1 3/4 cups coarsely chopped fruit (about 3 bananas, or blueberries)
Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F. Line muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, and egg. Do not overbeat, mixture should be pasty. Blend in the vanilla and buttermilk.
In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend gently into batter. When halfway blended, fold in fruit. Sometimes the use of frozen fruit will help “firm” up the batter. If not, and batter seems too gloppy add a few more tablespoons of flour (up to four in total) to make batter a bit stiffer. Scoop into paper-lined muffin tin. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over each muffin. Bake 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 F and bake until done, approximately another 12-15 minutes. Muffins should spring back when pressed lightly. Let sit in pan 5 minutes before removing. Makes 10-11 muffins.
FOR BREAD
Pour batter into in a brownie pan or loaf pan, sprinkle streusel topping, and bake for an extra 10-15 minutes. Check for doneness by putting a knife into the center. If it comes out clean, it’s ready.
I added butterscotch chips to mine the last time I made it. I took a load to work thinking it would keep me going for a few days… it was all eaten in 10 minutes after my colleagues smelled it!
The bananas need to be very ripe. My mom made banana bread to use them up before they had to be trashed. The riper they are the more taste in the bread.
That is very true. I wait until they are totally black and oozing. The bread turns out really moist and incredibly banana-y. As for recipe, I just use the one from Joy of Cooking.
If you want something more fitting desert then cook your banana bread batter in a waffle iron. Top the waffle with Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream, some bananas foster,, whipped cream and some shaved chocolate.
Looks like a pretty yummy recipe to me. I like to soak 1/2 a cup of raisins in some Jack Daniels and add them to my banana bread. (Thank you, Nigella Lawson.)
At what point do bananas go bad? I had some bananas that were dark… When I mashed them, they tasted off so I got rid of them. To be honest though, I only like bananas that are yellow with a tinge of green. The dark ones make me want to throw up. I didn’t know if the ones I had were still good or if it was my bias.
My complaint about most banana bread is there isn’t enough bananas in it. How many can you put in before it stops being banana bread and starts to become a banana sandwich?
When eating a plain banana, I like mine with some green still on them. Firm. A little hard to peel.
I have a hard time eating a hand of bananas before they get past that point. After they get a couple of spots on them, I won’t eat them. I wait. Till they’re spotty all over, soft and the stem is dried up and just touching the stem will make it rip off. This is when you make banana bread. But I won’t eat them like that plain. That’s gross.
moejoe, you’re using butter, and it’s been my experience that oil is better. The prototype best banana bread was the late Craig Claiborne’s of New York Times cookbook fame. This recipe is near the same, and makes a wonderfully moist bread.
