Saturday, March 14, 2009

Banana Bread

Cook's Illustrated, The New Best Recipe

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1 1/4 cups walnuts, chopped coarse
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl; set aside.

4. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

5. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (The bread can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

3 comments:

  1. Banana bread with dark chocolate chunks - adapted from Joy of Cooking

    1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
    2 1/4 tsp baking powder
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/3 cup unsalted butter - room temperature
    2/3 cup sugar
    2 eggs
    1 1/2 cup ripe mashed banana
    1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flour and butter in a loaf pan ( I used a 9 by 3 inch loaf pan)
    Sift all dry ingredients and set aside.

    Beat melted butter and sugar until creamy. Add in two eggs and beat until batter is light and pale. Pour in sifted ingredients and banana pulp in three stages. Lastly stir in chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool before serving.

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  2. Nigella’s Banana Bread

    Tips
    1) Use 4 medium bananas, 2 can be regular ripe but 2 must be very VERY ripe, like to the point of blackness
    2) In addition to chocolate chips, add some butterscotch chips, this adds a certain maple-y, rich flavour that makes it even yummier in my opinion
    3) I use half whole wheat flour & half all purpose flour or sometimes a mixture of different flours ( e.g. 1/4 cake flour, 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour)

    Ingredients
    *1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
    *1/2 cup sugar (can use less of you’re going to be putting in a lot of choco chips, I use all brown sugar or a half/half combo)
    *2 eggs
    *3-4 ripe bananas, mashed (See tip #1)
    *1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    *1 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain flour ( See tip #3)
    *2 teaspoons baking powder
    *1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    *1/2 teaspoon salt
    *1/2 cup (or more!) of chocolate chips or a mixture of butterscotch chips and chocolate chips (sounds a bit gross/too sweet maybe but trust me, in a way this is the special or “secret” ingredient that give it that je ne sais quoi/ups the ante on the deliciousness factor–See tip #2)

    Directions
    *Preheat oven to 325 Fº.
    *Grease loaf tin
    *Beat butter and sugar until blended.
    *Beat in eggs one at a time, then bananas. Stir in vanilla.
    *In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
    *Add flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each addition.
    *Gently mix in chocolate & butterscotch chips
    *Pour into tin and bake for 1 – 1 1/4 hours (or when you insert a toothpick into it & it comes out clean

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  3. Baking it for 1 hour makes it a bit undercooked in the center but still delicious!

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