Every bananana bread recipe I’ve ever tried has been totally gross. I’m not usually completely inept in the kitchen so I refuse to admit that it’s me.
So, I have 4 banananas that are nearly to the point where my Sweetie will get fed up and throw them away, even though he knows I want them, because he thinks they look gross (but he loves banananana bread :dubious:).
Anyway, I need to prepare.
Please share your favorite recipe (even though I love nearly all nuts, I hate nuts in my bananananana bread but I’m open to other additions except chocolate chips because that’s just gross). I’d like to know why you like it so much (texture, flavor, spices, ease of making, whatever).
I’ll pick the one that seems best to me. If it still comes out gross I’ll just give up and admit that it’s me.
I figure I have another 2 or 3 days before the banananananas are perfect (I’m going to hide them from the freak I live with).
Thanks!!
“Jamaican” Banana Bread, with lime, rum, coconut and brown sugar! I’m a sucker for lime and I love all the flavors together, and the crunchy topping. I also think it’s very moist.
I’ll admit from the start I haven’t tried this one yet. But I came across it a couple of weeks ago and it sounds interesting. And it’s certainly simple enough.
Banana bread pie:
2 medium sized bananas, very ripe
1/2 cup Bisquick mix
2 large eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put a rack in the oven and heat it to 400 degrees.
Put the bananas in a bowl and puree them with a mixer. It should take about a minute and you’ll have around a cup of pureed bananas.
Add all the other ingredients and mix them for another minute or so.
Spray a nine inch pie pan with some Pam. Pour the batter into the pan.
Cook the pie for about 25-30 minutes. It should be firm around the outside but a little soft in the middle. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for thirty more minutes.
Here’s the one I’ve used forever. It’s my Mom’s, and probably my Grandma’s. It’s plain ol’ banana bread, no fancy anything. It’s moist and flavorful - the best is when you add a lot of bananas. 2 are a minimum, it’s better the more you can get.
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1.5 c (10.5 oz) brown sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
2-6 overripe bananas. The blacker, the better.
1/2 cup oil or butter
1 3/4 cup (8.8 oz) flour
1 t. baking soda
Blend the buttermilk, eggs, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and bananas in a blender. Add the oil or butter; blend.
Mix the flour and soda in a bowl. Pour liquid ingredient over, mix.
Makes two mini loaf pans or one normal size loaf pan. I think I spray 'em with nonstick spray before adding the batter.
Bake at 350 for 20-30 min for small pans, 50 min for big pan.
Sometimes I’ve found that the frozen peel on a frozen banana doesn’t come off easily. It sort of flakes and fragments. When you wrap the peeled banana in plastic (and especially if you’re in a hurry in the morning making a smoothie), there’s no problem. Making a breakfast smoothie in the pre-dawn and having the frozen banana peel not come off easily and be all gunky and slimy… it can make you cranky. Also, if the banana peel is resistant, then handling/wrestling with the banana warms it up. The idea is to get that frozen banana into your smoothie asap, because it’s its frozen-ness that 1) chills the smoothie, and 2) thickens it. The defense rests.
How 'bout using “it’s” and “its” correctly right next to each other? Hehe.
<Thelma holsters her weapon.>
Thanks for the suggestions so far! I’m definitely leaning toward Athena’s grandmother’s recipe because non-adulterated banana bread is my favorite and if I can successfully make that, I can start getting creative.
However, they’re not black enough yet so keep them coming!!!
All of these look pretty familiar. I use the bog-standard Chiquita recipe that was on their bags in the 1970s. I do add in walnuts and raisins - to me that’s essential. Also, you want disgustingly ripe bananas. The kind that are black on the outside and just ooze out? Those are perfect.
This is the one I always make for friends and family.
4 bananas, smashed
1/3 cup butter, unsalted, melted
7.1 oz sugar, granulated
1 each egg, large
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
6.9 oz flour, a/p
Smash the bananas and butter. Add eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add salt. Sift in the flour and baking soda. Mix until combined. Butter and greased loaf pan at 350 degrees F for around 75 minutes.
I’ve always made this my hand, without any kind of a mixer. Just a large bowl and a fork. And when making it at other people’s place I end up skipping the sifting and it’s just fine. So really simple classic recipe. I add nuts, but easy enough without.
My bananas finally got black and squishy enough for bread. It came out incredibly yummy.
I do have a question though:
Do you normally have a huge amount of batter? My large bread pan was nearly filled. I’ve never had that much batter in the pan. It didn’t overflow, I just want to make sure that it wouldn’t be better with 2 large loaves.
Hmm, it’s been a while since I made it. If it didn’t overflow and was done all the way through, I’d say you did it right. I seem to recall that it does pretty much fill up the pan when you pore the batter in. It’s not like, half full or anything. Quick breads don’t rise THAT much.
I just pulled some banana muffins out of the oven. I always use thus recipe from Flour bakery in Boston, by way of Epicurious. I make plenty of tweaks to it (sometimes sub part of the flour with whole wheat flour; sometimes use applesauce in place of half the oil; always use yogurt rather than the Creme Fraiche it calls for—I’m not a person who keeps Creme Fraiche on hand…) and it never comes out bad and usually comes out really good.
The banana bread from Athena’s grandmother was a huge success. We had company over last night and they all loved it. I also gave some to a coworker today and in the 15 minutes between her arriving and me leaving, she ate 3 pieces.
