blue artichoke

Treebeard's Banana Bread

Rotten Tomatoes, a friend of my mom's, sent me this recipe with the following note: "I know everybody has their favorite banana bread recipe including me, which I usually make, but decided to try something different and make this recipe from one of Houston, Texas top restaurants. It came out with a really great texture and taste and very light tasting. It was really super good and super easy." I just want to point out that the favorite recipe she usually makes is my grandmother's recipe. She's right, though, this recipe is super easy to make and really super good to eat. Easy cleanup too. Other than planning ahead enough to let everything come to room temp, which you should do anyway, this was easy, if a little different from other banana bread recipes in the mixing technique. The texture was really moist and soft with a very banana-y flavor and nice balanced sweetness. Plus, it looks great. I think it might be as good as Grandma's, but probably not better.

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup white granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 t. dark vanilla extract flavoring
3 large very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups white all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Allow butter or margarine and eggs to warm to room temperature, about 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan; set pan aside.

In a bowl with fork or potato masher, mash ripe bananas until mushy, set aside. Beat butter and sugar at med speed until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. When batter is well blended, beat in the salt, baking soda, vanilla extract and mashed bananas until blended in. Then gradually beat in flour until all of the flour is mixed in. Stir in chopped nuts, if using. When batter is well blended, pour into prepared baking pan. Let pan sit for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 300 degrees. Bake bread for 1 hour and 20 minutes (80 minutes) or until bread is baked and a cake tester or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. When bread is baked through, remove pan from oven and set on a wire rack to cool.

Makes 1 loaf.

Banana Nut Bread

Years ago, Rotten Tomatoes made a hand-written cookbook for my mom with all of her (Rotten Tomatoes) favorite recipes. I borrowed that cookbook last year to copy several recipes, including this one. Rotten Tomatoes usually makes my grandmother's banana bread, and had forgotten about this recipe until I made it for the Snackdown. I think she had actually lost her copy of this recipe, so I sent it back to her. This was probably the most fun recipe I made in the course of the Snackdown, because I enjoyed watching the batter transform from a super thick blob to a more workable consistency. Because it is all mixed by hand, there are banana chunks throughout the bread. I don't usually keep whole milk around, so I added a dab of butter to skim milk. That worked fine; the loaf had a very dark-dark brown top and crust that looked moist and shiny and the inside had a deep golden brown color. The flavor was super sweet, but in a good way. GC's review was vulger, so won't be repeated, but was extremely complementary. This was one of the best breads.

In large bowl, mix 2 c. sugar, 2 ¼ c. flour and ½ t. salt. By hand, mix in ¾ c. oil, 3 eggs and 1 t. vanilla.

Sour milk by adding ¼ t. vinegar to ¼ c. whole milk. Add 1 1/3 t. baking soda and let sit until dissolved. Add to mixture. Stir in 1 c. chopped nuts and 4 large ripe bananas, well mashed. Bake 1h in the top half of a 350 oven, in a loaf pan or large cake pan.

Freezes well.

Banana Bread

Another of my mom's friends is "famous" for her banana bread, which comes from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. This recipe really is super fast and easy to assemble; I had the batter in the pan and the dishes washed before the oven was preheated! Made a big loaf, puffed up a lot. The top was really dark, looked almost burned in some spots. Cooked for 1h at 350, then turned off the oven and returned bread for another 15m. Really tasty; banana-y and sweet, but not overly so. Excellent; gives Grandma’s a run for the title. I'm curious to try the whole-wheat version, or a mix of whole wheat and white flours.

2-1/2 c. flour
1 t. salt
2 t. baking soda
1 c. veg shortening
2 c sugar
2 c. mashed ripe banana, about 6
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour the loaf (9x5x3).

Stir and toss together the flour, salt and baking soda.

In a large bowl, mix shortening, sugar, mashed banana, eggs, and walnuts. Add the combined dry ingredients and stir just until the batter is thoroughly blended. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 65-70 min or until a broom straw inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for about 5 min. then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

2 small loaves-bake 1 hour.

Whole-wheat banana bread: substitute 2-1/4 c whole-wheat flour for the 2-1/2 c all-purpose flour.

Classic Banana Bread

We love this bread's moist texture and simple flavor. Banana bread should form a crack down the center as it bakes--a sign the baking soda is doing its job.

This one also gave Grandma’s recipe a run for the money. The bread formed a slightly chewy, dark brown crust and a golden interior with flecks of banana. The key to it’s greatness, though, is its moist and springy texture.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield: 1 loaf, 14 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

CALORIES 187(21% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 2.4g,mono 1.2g,poly 0.3g); PROTEIN 3.3g; CHOLESTEROL 40mg; CALCIUM 20mg; SODIUM 198mg; FIBER 1.1g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 34.4g
Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2003

Cook’s Illustrated Best Banana Bread

Another moist, sweet loaf with definite banana flavor.
The Problem: Too many banana bread recipes turn out bland, flat, heavy, dry, and/or gritty loaves.
The Goal: A basic banana bread with deep banana flavor, plenty of moisture, and a nice, light texture.
The Solution: Use older, darkly speckled bananas, which are both sweeter and more moist than younger bananas; add yogurt for a nice tang and even more moisture; and use the "muffin method" to mix the wet and dry ingredients for a delicate, golden brown loaf of decent height. Greasing and flouring only the bottom of a regular loaf pan causes the bread to cling to the sides and rise higher. If using a nonstick loaf pan, on which the sides are very slick, grease and flour sides as well as the bottom.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 cups toasted walnuts chopped coarse (about 1 cup)
3 large bananas very ripe, soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs beaten lightly
6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of regular loaf pan, or grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.

2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.