How You Can Make Banana Bread

We all know banana bread - it is that yummy, moist sweetbread that we make out of those nasty old black over-ripe bananas. “Don’t throw these bananas away!” - turn them into banana bread instead. 

First Banan Bread Ever?

Banana bread recipes started appearing in cookbooks around 1930s. Banana bread is not an actual bread mainly because you use baking soda instead of yeast. The mixture does not form dough to be kneaded and then set aside to rise, just a thick batter. Since it is so easy to make it is more and more popular. It is the most common in cafes in Australia where it is served at breakfast. 

There are several distinct variations of this uncomplicated recipe, like healthy banana bread, or this banan bread recipe etc... Here is a classic version of homemade banana bread but before we start maybe one more thing about bananas - they are actually pretty good for you and your health. You can check out their nutritional value here.

Homemade Banana Bread Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon buttermilk

Directions 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place peeled bananas in a small bowl and mash them with a fork. Stir in buttermilk and set this aside.

3. In a larger bowl mix together the butter and sugars till they are fluffy.

4. Add the egg and beat until nicely blended.

5. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a bowl.

6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients plus the banana mixture for the butter and sugar inside the mixing bowl. Start with the dry ingredients and end with the dry components and generally beat completely.

7. Coat a 9” by 5” loaf pan with cooking spray. Spoon the batter into the pan and spread it out evenly.

8. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. The bread is done when is dark golden brown. Insert a toothpick directly in to the middle and if it comes out clean, the bread is done.

To make this banana bread recipe a bit different you can also add some other fruits to the recipe. the main difference is that you must always mash the bananas but leave other fruits in pieces and spread them out evenly throughout the batter. Fruits that you can use are for instance blueberries, peaches cut to pieces, cherries and all sorts of other fruits. Just experiment. You can also use dry fruits if you like.

That's it - enjoy!

 

Banana Walnut Muffins

Yesterday my gf made some delicious banana walnut muffins. I didn't find time to snap a few pictures because she was finished soooo fast :). There really are easy to make, I have to convince her to post her recipe here. After that we made some absolutely excellent natural fruit juice from apples, carrots and oranges. You can like feel the nature flowing through your body and all the vitamins and antioxidants... :) Cool stuff. Maybe this deserves another post, a recipe for this juice?

 

How To Make Banana Bread? Use This Recipe!

OK, now we know what kind of bananas we should use for banana bread. What else do we need? 4-5 bananas, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla. That's it.

Now about that sugar... originally you should add 1 cup of sugar. I cut that down to 1/2 cup, but usually when I'm making banana bread I use honey. 2-3 really full spoons of honey and that's it.

The banana bread recipe itself is really simple.

There are some optional steps, how to mix the ingredients together, but if you want to keep it really simple you can just mix everything together so you get a nice even mixture and pour the dough into a loaf pan. And that's it! You can even make banana bread muffins if you like. Believe me, it is really that simple and it works. If you want a little bit more detailed instructions on how to make banana bread then check thi recipe.

Now all there is left to do is to bake it.

Turn the oven to 180C / 360F and bake for an hour or so. Use the toothpick test to see if it's ready and you are good to go. Oh, and if you are making muffins then around 20 minutes is usually more than enough to bake them. They are smaller and the bake faster.

Enjoy!

What Kind Of Bananas Do You Use For Banana Bread

And now to the second part of the Sunday baking extravaganza :). Banana bread! First - one question that you may or may not ask. What kind of bananas should you use for banana bread. The answer is simple - it almost doesnt matter :)! It is better to use bananas that are really really ripe, overripe. A litle dark brown and mushy. These are easier to mash and give out a litle bit more moisture maybe.

But even fresh, normal bananas will do just fine.

Today Is Cooking Time

Today me and my girlfriend are going to do some baking. She wants to bring something sweet and tasty to work and feed her hungry co-workers :). The plan is to make some super chocolate boosted tripple chocolate chip muffins and two loafs of tasty and healthy banana bread. Can't wait! Both a really really easy to make. I might even set a stopwatch and time how long does it take to make muffins and banana bred.

Anyway, if I have time I'll post some photos of the cooking process.

Till later...