banana bread Archives

Best Damn Banana Bread-Slipping in A New One

By threejamigos | August 29, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

There are things you take for granted, things that are constants within your own universe.

For example, I have made the same banana bread forever. A recipe from my kids’ pre-school teacher WAY BACK in the day. Every time I strayed and tried a different recipe my family’s response was “it’s not bad, but it’s not Teacher Heidi’s banana bread”. Convinced, I boldly titled it “Best Damn Banana Bread” on 3Jamigos.

So, there I am, sitting on the can this morning, taking in all the bad news of the day, fires, hurricanes, pandemic, political craziness, when Wes slides the door open (please, don’t tell me you lock your bathroom door at home) and says…

”I like this banana bread more than your usual”

Say What?

Thus proving we are living in crazy times, I almost fell off my “throne”. I had just received a copy of Dominique Ansel’s new baking book, Everyone Can Bake. (Now, that is a constant in my universe-buying cookbooks) and had yet to make anything from it. Fortunately, while perusing the blogosphere, I found My Baking Addiction’s (Boss Blog) post on Ansel’s Banana Bread. Rave reviews all around. Never one to shy away from a banana bread challenge, I decided to have a go of it.

The recipe comes together quickly. It calls for melted butter, 4 bananas, eggs, flour…pretty standard although it is quite generous with the butter and bananas. I decided to tweak the recipe so I added diced apricots, substituted mace for nutmeg, and finished with Midwest Made’s crunchy sugar topping with a touch of cinnamon. (Technique for sugar from Midwest Made Banana Bread)

Nota Bene

Ansel’s book calls for an 8 x 4.5 loaf pan. NOPE. I used a 9×5 loaf pan and had extra batter for 3 muffins. Don’t try to pour all the batter into an 8 x 4.5 pan, it will overflow creating havoc in your oven. My Baking Addiction used a 10 x 5 pan. I filled my loaf pan to approximately 3/4-inch below the top edge. Baking time was around 1 hour and 15 minutes, halfway through I covered the top with foil so it wouldn’t get too dark.

It’s everything banana bread should be-dense, moist, and banana-y. The bits of apricot gave the bread a tart, sweet, component. My bet is dried strawberries, blueberries, or a tropical fruit medley would work too. If you like nuts, toss a handful of chopped walnuts in with the apricots or sprinkle on top of the loaf before baking.

Nota Nota Bene

The beauty of this recipe is you can make it by hand…and you absolutely should! I was befuddled (omg, who uses that word), a couple of times I have made this bread it sinks in the middle. I now think it is because I used a mixer and inadvertently beat too much air into the bread causing it to fall in the center. This is truly a one-bowl recipe to make by hand.

So, I now have two Best Damn Banana Bread recipes but as they say, variety is the spice of life. Try both, tell me which one reigns supreme.

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Banana Bread, Yet Another Best Damn BB

Banana Bread by Dominic Ansel. Easy and delicious!

Course quick breads

Cuisine American

Keyword Banana Bread, dominic ansel

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 15

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

2 cups sugar 400grams
2 cups flour 250 grams
¾ teaspoon baking soda 3 grams
¾ teaspoon nutmeg 2 grams can substitute mace
1 teaspoon salt 5 grams
1 teaspoon baking powder 5 grams

The Wet Ingredients

3 eggs 150 grams
4 overripe bananas, mashed 400 grams, approx 2 cups
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, 200 grams
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced substitute dried berries, or tropical fruit medley, optional
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 10" x 5" x 3 ½" loaf pan and set aside. If you use a smaller pan, fill until the batter reaches 3/4-1 inch below the top edge. Excess batter can be used for muffins or mini-loaves.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and baking powder.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and the mashed bananas together. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix together until the dry ingredients disappear. Stir in the melted butter until fully incorporated. If using, fold in dried fruit and nuts.
Pour the batter into prepared pan* Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check loaf halfway through, if the crust is browning too quickly, cover with foil. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing.
*Optional: Mix 1 teaspoon cinnamon with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Wet finger tips and mix sugar mixture until it clumps. Sprinkle evenly over top of batter. Or use your favorite streusel topping.

Midwest Made Banana Bread

By threejamigos | April 22, 2020 | Comments 6 comments

Yes, I tried yet another banana bread recipe. Unlike biscuits, I am not in search of the best banana bread in the universe. I LIKE the recipe I have for banana bread. AND yet, like Pavlov’s Dogs, I see a banana bread recipe and I get an overwhelming urge to try it. Go figure. Such was the case with Shauna Sever’s banana bread recipe from her book Midwest Made.

In my defense, her BB (please, can I just abbreviate for expedience) was getting rave reviews on Food52 and I did have overripe bananas. I have baked a couple of goodies from the book and all were pretty darn good. Her Donut Loaf was a big hit with family and friends as were the jam bars. The book is filled with recipes that are familiar, comforting, and delicious. Treats we have all grown up with, brownies, cookie jar gems, cobblers, and pies-desserts with roots in the Heartland. Right now that’s what it is all about…

Comfort in the Time of COVID-19

The book is a gem and perfect for the times. If you would like a copy, I have links to Indie Bookstores that could really use your patronage. In Los Angeles please order from Now Serving LA, and in the Bay Area, Books Inc. (Free delivery!). A little further away, the iconic institution, Powells City of Books is also delivering (free shipping). I’m not sure if Omnivore Books in the City has it in stock, but they have a fantastic selection of cookbooks, check it out. They are also taking orders, shipping, or curbside pick-up.

Back to Banana Bread

What sets Midwest Made’s BB is a crunchy, sweet, coat of sugar on the top of the bread. Novel. You wet your fingers and rub the sugar around until it gets clumpy and scatter them on the BB batter. This creates the crunchy top of the bread, genius.

The loaf comes out of the oven picture-perfect. The bread has a nice texture with the added crunch of sweet topping. My bottle of rum was missing in action, a victim of Shelter In Place perhaps, too bad, the Rum might have cut some of the sweetness or made the flavor a little more complex. Next time I would add Rum or nuts to the recipe to balance the sweetness.

The recipe uses oil as the fat which makes it super easy and quick to throw together. The dry ingredients are combined and folded into the wet. Try not to overmix (mantra), the batter will be lumpy and pourable. This is essentially a one-bowl, one spoon or spatula, recipe. How easy is that?

Pour the batter into a 9×5 loaf pan and make the sugar topping.

I would add chopped pecans or walnuts to the batter or the sugar topping. The sugar is the kicker.

I was amazed that the sugar didn’t melt into the batter but remained formed and crunchy.

I liked this recipe and would make it again but does it replace my Best Damn Banana Bread recipe, probably not.

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The Only Banana Bread You’ll Ever Need from Midwest Made

Course quick breads

Cuisine American

Keyword Banana Bread

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1 10

Servings 10 servings

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups mashed very ripe bananas
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup well-shaken buttermilk at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon dark rum optional
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour spooned and leveled
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar for sprinkling
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts chopped

Instructions

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat it to 325-degrees F. Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and line it with parchment paper with a couple of inches overhang on 2 opposite sides.
In a large bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, eggs, rum (if using) and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and fold until just blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Place the granulated sugar in a small bowl. Dampen your fingertips with water and work them into the sugar until it just begins to look like snow-if you pinch some, it should just barely hold together. Sprinkle the dampened sugar over the batter, aiming to get it clumped up together in spots.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cool for twenty minutes in the pan, then use the parchment paper to help lift the loaf out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

My Banana Bad (Banana Bread Again?)

By threejamigos | February 26, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

You know how sometimes you get wrapped up looking for something new or better than what you already have. You get tired of making the same thing and convince yourself that somewhere out there is a version of your tried and true that is tastier and better? The old bait and switch of new and improved?

Well, I just fell for that with of all things banana bread. I tired of making the same recipe.

So I took you and me off on a banana bread tangent.

Well I’m here to tell you STOP. Don’t bother. Forget the recipes that call for reducing the banana liquid or that try to cram 6 bananas into 1 loaf of bread for banana flavor POP.

I had 3 very ripe bananas sitting on my counter today so I made my tried and true recipe ““Best Damn Banana Bread” and guess what, it is the best damn banana bread. Especially if you swirl in some Nutella.

Nuff said…

Bananas Bread Revisited

By threejamigos | February 6, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

I haven’t posted in more than just a few days. It’s not because I have been busy and have pushed my blog to the back burner, nope. I just haven’t been all that enthused about the recipes I have tried lately. Then I thought, I should be posting the good, the bad, and the meh.

I found a couple of recipes that fall into what I call my “Quest for the Holy Grail” list. Dishes that I have pretty darn good recipes for already but if I find a new recipe that sounds yummylicious, I’d try it. Such is the case for Nancy Silverton’s Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits and 2 recipes for banana bread. One from the Violet Bakery Cookbook and another from America’s Test Kitchen Essentials Cookbook.

So about those biscuits…I came across a cool website Panna Cooking that features a lot of heavyweight chefs in videos making their favorites. Think of it as a video food magazine. Their Facebook page has some of their videos or you can subscribe to their site. I watched Nancy Silverton’s video for making her biscuits and immediately ran to my kitchen to make them. Much like croissant dough, it calls for folding the dough and rolling it seven times. This creates the flaky layers. Mine had layers but the biscuits weren’t as tall as the ones in her video. The biscuits were tasty but not quite as light as I would have liked. I did tweet Nancy Silverton asking if she had any tips..stay tuned, hope I get a response.

On to banana bread. I love my recipe for banana bread, its moist, light, cake like and versatile but I have grown tired of making it. Along comes this beautiful cookbook, the Violet Bakery Cookbook with this absolutely lovely looking banana bread. Unlike many of the recipes for banana bread it contains double the amount of bananas. Six bananas for 1 loaf of bread! Zowie. The bread came out a little heavy and gummy perhaps from insufficient baking time. Disappointing but I may try it again, I am thinking baker error (me, me, me) I have tasted it made by friends and it is filled with flavor and quite good. The recipe can be found on the blog Local Milk. Maybe you’ll have better luck. While paging through ATK Essentials cookbook, I came across their Ultimate banana bread recipe which also called for 6 bananas but with an additional step of extracting the liquid from the bananas, reducing it, and adding the now banana syrup back to the recipe. It also called for slices of bananas and nuts on top and sprinkling it with sugar. The bread was definitely less gummy, pretty dense but packed with banana flavor. The addition of the sliced bananas and chopped pecans on top adds a nice carmelized finish. Is it better then my original recipe? I don’t think so. The next time you have 12 or so very ripe bananas on your counter, give these recipes a try. Let me know which one you like!

Best Damn Banana Bread

By threejamigos | June 12, 2015 | Comments 5 comments

Bananas for Bread

Did I get your attention? Ok, it may not be the best damn banana bread recipe as there are probably millions, but it is really yummy and very easy to make! How easy? The kids made this bread in pre-school. They would smoosh the bananas, mash the butter and sugar together and crank the sifter, and with a little (ok, a lot) of help, stir and pour the batter into the muffin tins. Over the years we have played with the recipe and added different nuts, chocolate chips, blueberries, dried apricots or Nutella to the batter. It can be baked in a loaf pan or in muffin tins, your choice. It really is simple & delicious and we have Teacher Heidi to thank for the recipe!

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4 from 3 votes

Best Damn Banana Bread

Simple and delicious banana bread from my kids' pre-school days.

Course Breads, quick breads

Cuisine American

Keyword Banana Bread

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 55

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
6 ripe bananas mashed
4 beaten eggs

Dry Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp. Baking soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until well blended, it does not have to be light and fluffy since you want some density to your bread. Beat in eggs one at a time.
Add flour mixture and bananas to butter-egg batter alternating dry ingredients with bananas, begin with third of the flour mixture, then half of the banana, third of flour, the remaining half of bananas and end with remaining dry ingredients. Honestly, in a pinch, just dump it all in at once and stir well to combine completely. Should be fine.
For muffins, line 2-12 cup muffin tins with paper liners or butter and flour cups. Fill about 2/3 full. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
For loaf bread, use 2 buttered and floured 9x5 loaf pans and fill equally with batter. Bake 45-55 minutes or until tester comes out clean. The top of bread will be fairly dark when done. Cover top with tin foil if the bread begins to brown too much. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Makes 2 loaves or 2 dozen muffins

Notes

Be creative! Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips to batter and/or chopped toasted pecans or fresh blueberries. For the bread in the photos, 3 heaping teaspoonfuls of Nutella were plopped and swirled into the batter before baking. Recipe can be halved.