Snackdown Update
Three more banana bread recipes have been tested, but I forgot to tell you about them. Better late than never.
Here goes:
Banana Bread #20, Blueberry Banana Oat Bread
I'm not sure where this recipe is from. It uses Bisquick (which I make myself), quick-cooking oats and blueberries. I used fresh blueberries. The batter was really thick, but baked up to a nice looking loaf with a rough texture. I'm realizing that I don't like oatmeal in banana bread; it gives a rough, scratchy texture that feels so gross in my mouth. This bread wasn't very sweet, but the blueberries added a nice boost to the flavor. Not a keeper.
Banana Bread #21, Best Banana Bread Recipe
Recipe from www.banana.com. I omitted the nuts, as usual. This was a good loaf of banana bread if you plan to devour it immediately upon removal from the oven. It looked nice. It was tender and moist when warm, but dried out considerably after it cooled down. And it wasn't sweet enough. Not a keeper.
Banana Bread #22, Banana Nut Bread
I have a lot of recipes called "Banana Nut Bread." This one came from one of my mom's friends, Rotten Tomatoes. It is a bit different from the rest in that it calls for whole milk soured with vinegar and baking soda. I didn't have whole milk, but added a bit of melted and cooled butter to skim milk, then soured that as directed. All ingredients are mixed by hand, which was really fun. The dough started out as a super thick paste of sugar, flour, salt, oil and eggs. Then I added the milk and it suddenly became more liquid and easy to stir. I stirred in the roughly mashed bananas, which kept some chunks as I mixed them in. This is the best recipe so far. It had to cook longer than directed for the center to set, and the bottom burned a bit. Next time, I'll cook it in the top half of my oven. It looked moist when it came out of the oven, with a dark-dark brown shiny crust. The inside was dark golden brown, with some banana chunks throughout the loaf. The taste was very banana-y and very sweet. In fact, I could probably reduce the amount of sugar, but I don't know why I'd want to; it is entirely too good. There ought to be a law. I can't repeat Gentleman Caller's reaction to the bread, but he seems to be as enamored of this bread as I am. Grandma better watch out; this recipe very well could surpass hers!
So, now you're updated on the Snackdown. Sleep easy.