GIFTS FROM MY KITCHEN – BANANA BREAD
GIFTS FROM MY KITCHEN – BANANA BREAD
Good Day!
Today, my darling, delightful and ever-so-charming, youngest son Austin called me from school to inform me that he needed to bring a breakfast item to his video production class in the morning. Now mind you, I am happy to do this; in fact, it delights me to cook for others. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that Austin had known about this for more than the 8 hour notice he gave me, thus his harried and clandestine cell phone call from his hiding place in the boys’ bathroom (cell phones are not allowed at school).
Well, it turns out “he”, or should I say “I”, lucked out and avoided a last minute trip to the grocery store for ingredients, as I just happened to have on hand several bananas that were past their prime and begging to become banana bread.
I also happen to have a really awesome recipe for super moist and delicious banana bread that is also loaded with fiber, because it is made with whole-wheat flour. So, here’s how I make my Banana Bread:
Take 5 medium-sized, over-ripe bananas, peel them and place them in a flat bowl. Mash them up with a fork.
Mash them up until they’re smooth and no longer real lumpy.
Gather together all of your dry ingredients plus a sifter, measuring spoons and dry measuring cups.
Dump 2 cups white whole-wheat flour into the sifter. Add 2 teaspoons baking soda. I hope your sifter is prettier than mine. Mine’s a family heirloom:) NOT!
Then add 2 teaspoons salt.
Dump in 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour.
Then sift the dry ingredients onto a plate or bowl. In this way you are incorporating all of the dry ingredients together before adding them to the liquid ingredients. Now, set your dry ingredients aside while you work on the wet ingredients.
First, crack four eggs into a small bowl. It is always a good idea to do this to avoid getting eggshells in your batter. Then pour the eggs into the bowl of your upright mixer. Using the beater attachment, beat up the eggs.
Now add 1 cup vegetable oil to the beaten eggs. I hope your Kitchenaid Mixer is prettier than mine. I’m putting a new one on my wish-list.
Next, add 2/3 cup water to the egg and oil mixture.
Add 1 teaspoon white vinegar to the liquid ingredients.
Finally, add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and quickly mix together all of the wet ingredients together.
Finally, pour your mashed bananas into the egg mixture
Now, change the beater attachment on your mixer to a paddle attachment. This is because, while you needed to beat up the eggs, you don’t want to “beat” the banana bread batter. Over beating makes for a dry, tough texture in your baked loaf.
With your paddle attachment in place, you are ready to add the dry ingredients.
First, add 2-1/2 cups sugar to the liquid ingredients. Mix until incorporated.
Now, go get all those sifted dry ingredients that you set aside and add them to the wet ingredients a scoop at a time, mixing on low speed until just incorporated. Do not over mix. Over mixing causes the gluten in the flour to over develop and you end up with air bubbles and an uneven, tough texture to your finished banana bread.
I use my measuring cup as a scoop and carefully add the flour so it doesn’t go flying all over my kitchen.
Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl. I hadn’t done that yet when I took this picture. This is also the point at which you can fold in some walnuts or pecans if you’d like. Since my husband doesn’t like nuts in his banana bread I usually make a loaf with walnuts for me and one without for him. Today I decided to sprinkle walnuts on top of the loaves rather than mix them into the batter.
Now your batter is ready for the loaf pans. Decide if you’d like to make 6 miniature loaves, 3 smaller size loaves or 2 large loaves. This is a large recipe and that’s why it is great for gifting. Keep a loaf for yourself, freeze a loaf and give one away!
I like to prepare my pans using spray-on PAM. To avoid getting the overspray all over my kitchen counters, I always spray the PAM holding the pan over the sink. To avoid loaves that stick to the pan, you can also sprinkle them with a light dusting of flour at this point, or oil your pans with butter or shortening as well. And, if you’re really cool, you can line your pans with parchment paper.
I love nuts and prefer them big and chunky. This makes for a more rustic looking loaf. You can always chop up your nuts if you prefer. I made a loaf without nuts for Austin’s video production class and a miniature one to give away.
Place your pans in the oven, preheated to 350º F. Be sure to center them on the oven racks so they are not touching each other or the sides of the oven. This way they will cook evenly. Because my loaves are 3 different sizes, they will require 3 different bake times, so I will have to watch them carefully.
My largest loaf will take about 1-1/4 hours to cook, while my miniature loaf may be done in about 50 minutes, so I will set my timer for 50 minutes.
You can test for doneness by touching the center top of the loaf. If it is dry, insert a toothpick or a metal tester like mine into the center of the loaf. If it comes out clean, your Banana Bread is done. You may have to test for doneness several times during the baking process, so it is a good idea to do this quickly while your loaves are still in the oven. Be quick, as you don’t want to let a lot of heat escape from the oven. If you determine that your banana bread is ready, remove the pans from the oven and let them rest on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. This will allow them to set-up in the pan. If you try to remove them too quickly they have a tendency to stick to the pan or crack.
Using a metal spatula, loosen the loaf from the sides of the pan.
Invert the loaves onto a cooling rack.
Allow the loaves to cool completely before slicing or storing them.
Here is the result: moist and delicious banana bread ready to go to school with my son in the morning.
The smallest loaf got wrapped up as a gift to Austin’s BFF who drives him to school each morning at the ungodly hour of 6:45am. Thank heavens for girls with cars!
So there you have it: GIFTS FROM MY KITCHEN – BANANA BREAD
What kinds of gifts do you cook up in your kitchen?
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- 4 Eggs, Beaten
- 1 Cup Vegetable Oil (Corn or Canola Oil)
- ⅔ Cup Water
- 1 tsp. White Vinegar
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 2 Cups Mashed Ripe Bananas (approx. 5)
- 2 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 Cups White Whole-Wheat Flour
- 1 ½ Cups All Purpose White Flour
- 2 tsp. Salt
- 2 tsp. Baking Soda
- 2 Cups Walnuts
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Add 4 eggs to a standing mixer and beat using a "beater" attachment.
- Add oil, water, vinegar and vanilla to eggs.
- Use a fork to mash bananas then add to other wet ingredients.
- Add 2 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar.
- Mix until ingredients are incorporated.
- Change beater attachment to "paddle" attachment.
- Sift together the white whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt and baking soda.
- Add sifted dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on low speed until incorporated.
- Grease 2 large, 3 regular size loaf pans or 6 mini loaf pans.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
- Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If using miniature loaf pans they will require less baking time.
- Let loaves rest for 5 minutes in their loaf pans on a cooling rack.
- Using a knife or spatula loosen loaves from sides of pan.
- Invert loaves onto cooling rack and cool completely before slicing.
