This dark, moist banana bread presents serious competition for a certain holiday bread. That's right, fruit cake, I am talking to you! Though the more common and lighter coloured version of banana bread can benefit from the addition of semi-sweet chocolate chips, walnuts, and cream-cheese frosting, this unadorned beauty stands its ground in the holiday season just by the dint of it being baked at a low temperature for two hours.
It's so good that instead of making banana bread for the express purpose of using up bananas too ripe to eat out of hand, I can envision my snapping up any over-ripe bananas at the market and/or leaving some bananas to ripen too much on purpose.
This fabulous recipe comes from The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook mostly unchanged except for my substituting maple sugar for brown sugar.
By maple sugar I don't mean crystallised maple syrup but white sugar with the addition of maple syrup in a ratio of two tablespoons of syrup to 237 ml (American 8 fluid ounce cup) of sugar.
Ingredients
makes 1 loaf (I used a 25 x 10 cm/9.5 x 4 inch pan, but the more typical 23 x 13 cm/9 x 5 inch bread pan is fine also.
recipe can be doubled
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 135 degrees C/275 degrees F. Grease the pan's insides well with butter. Trace with pencil the outside bottom of the pan onto parchment paper and cut out. Place into the pan and grease this bottom liner. If using a food processor fitted with the steel blade, puree bananas until smooth. Add both sugars, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined. Add eggs, yogurt, and oil. Mix again. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add the flour. Stir just until all the flour disappears and batter is nearly smooth. If mixing by hand, mash bananas in a large bowl using first a potato masher then a wire whisk once it becomes more liquid. Whisk till smooth which took me about five minutes from start to finish. Ooooh, such a lovely fragrance!
Add both sugars, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until incorporated.
Crack eggs into bowl, add yogurt, and pour in the oil. Whisk well.
Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until all the flour is dissolved and the batter is mostly smooth.
Spoon or pour batter into the prepared pan. My pans were filled to just a bit under the top edge. Bake for around 2 to 2.5 hours.
My pans (I doubled the recipe) are thinner and longer than a regular bread pan, and they took 2 hours to finish baking. Make sure that the top springs back when tapped rather vigorously and/or when a wooden toothpick is inserted, it comes out clean.
This luscious sweet bread is versatile. In the below photo a thick slice (I suppose one could do thin slices, but why bother? The scrumptious texture needs at least 2.5 cm/1 inch of thickness in order to be duly appreciated) is taking a rest before it gets slathered with unsweetened, creamy, natural peanut butter which makes a wonderful quick breakfast or a snack.
For dessert, it will eagerly take on a deluge of maple syrup (see below photo) or a mound of ice cream or both! It can be topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Its delightful sponginess could take a good splash of alcohol, allowing it to be used in trifle (cut banana bread slices into sticks to mimic lady fingers) or a square-shaped rum baba. It could be cut into different forms like circles or stars and stacked, an architectural mound layered and filled, perhaps with mascarpone cream, in the manner of small, individual naked cakes. The bits left over could be crushed for layering and topping parfaits or toasted for croutons in fruit salad.
As for a savoury presentation? I am thinking a nice slab of banana bread accompanying eggs scrambled with blue cheese. All of this is possible just in time for the holidays because there is a full loaf plus a good chunk of another one sitting in our freezer. This bread will retain its flavour when frozen for three months.
À la prochaine!
RELATED POSTS
Tortillas de Tiesto a la Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook
Raisin Challah a la Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook
RELATED LINKS
Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook at Amazon
Hot Bread Kitchen Website: Handmade Authentic Multi-Ethnic Breads, Preserving Tradition, Rising Expectations
It's so good that instead of making banana bread for the express purpose of using up bananas too ripe to eat out of hand, I can envision my snapping up any over-ripe bananas at the market and/or leaving some bananas to ripen too much on purpose.
This fabulous recipe comes from The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook mostly unchanged except for my substituting maple sugar for brown sugar.
By maple sugar I don't mean crystallised maple syrup but white sugar with the addition of maple syrup in a ratio of two tablespoons of syrup to 237 ml (American 8 fluid ounce cup) of sugar.
Ingredients
makes 1 loaf (I used a 25 x 10 cm/9.5 x 4 inch pan, but the more typical 23 x 13 cm/9 x 5 inch bread pan is fine also.
recipe can be doubled
- Bananas, very ripe, 3 medium
- Sugar, granulated, white, 100 g (1/2 American 8 fluid oz cup)
- Sugar, granulated, white, 100g (1/2 American 8 fluid oz cup) with added:
- Maple syrup, 2 T
- Baking soda, 2 1/2 tsp
- Salt, coarse or Kosher, 1/2 tsp
- Eggs, large, 2 (I used 3 medium)
- Yogurt, plain, whole milk, 177 ml (3/4 American 8 fluid oz cup)
- Oil, Canola (I used safflower), 4 T
- Flour, all-purpose (I used French T55), 250 g/2 American 8 fluid oz cups)
- Unsalted butter to grease pan
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 135 degrees C/275 degrees F. Grease the pan's insides well with butter. Trace with pencil the outside bottom of the pan onto parchment paper and cut out. Place into the pan and grease this bottom liner. If using a food processor fitted with the steel blade, puree bananas until smooth. Add both sugars, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined. Add eggs, yogurt, and oil. Mix again. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and add the flour. Stir just until all the flour disappears and batter is nearly smooth. If mixing by hand, mash bananas in a large bowl using first a potato masher then a wire whisk once it becomes more liquid. Whisk till smooth which took me about five minutes from start to finish. Ooooh, such a lovely fragrance!
Add both sugars, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until incorporated.
Crack eggs into bowl, add yogurt, and pour in the oil. Whisk well.
Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until all the flour is dissolved and the batter is mostly smooth.
Spoon or pour batter into the prepared pan. My pans were filled to just a bit under the top edge. Bake for around 2 to 2.5 hours.
My pans (I doubled the recipe) are thinner and longer than a regular bread pan, and they took 2 hours to finish baking. Make sure that the top springs back when tapped rather vigorously and/or when a wooden toothpick is inserted, it comes out clean.
This luscious sweet bread is versatile. In the below photo a thick slice (I suppose one could do thin slices, but why bother? The scrumptious texture needs at least 2.5 cm/1 inch of thickness in order to be duly appreciated) is taking a rest before it gets slathered with unsweetened, creamy, natural peanut butter which makes a wonderful quick breakfast or a snack.
For dessert, it will eagerly take on a deluge of maple syrup (see below photo) or a mound of ice cream or both! It can be topped with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Its delightful sponginess could take a good splash of alcohol, allowing it to be used in trifle (cut banana bread slices into sticks to mimic lady fingers) or a square-shaped rum baba. It could be cut into different forms like circles or stars and stacked, an architectural mound layered and filled, perhaps with mascarpone cream, in the manner of small, individual naked cakes. The bits left over could be crushed for layering and topping parfaits or toasted for croutons in fruit salad.
As for a savoury presentation? I am thinking a nice slab of banana bread accompanying eggs scrambled with blue cheese. All of this is possible just in time for the holidays because there is a full loaf plus a good chunk of another one sitting in our freezer. This bread will retain its flavour when frozen for three months.
À la prochaine!
RELATED POSTS
Tortillas de Tiesto a la Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook
Raisin Challah a la Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook
Bialys a la Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook
Book Review / Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook: Artisanal Baking From Around The World by Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez with Julia Turshen
Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook at Amazon
Hot Bread Kitchen Website: Handmade Authentic Multi-Ethnic Breads, Preserving Tradition, Rising Expectations
