Sunday, July 18, 2010

Jacked-up Banana Bread

Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com.



My office always has a few extra bananas at the end of the week which always get thrown out.  I'm always telling people they should be taking them home to make banana bread.  Well, years later and still no banana bread, i decided to see what i could do with those over-ripe bananas.

This recipe looks rather simple and, disappointingly, no need to use my new KitchenAid stand mixer, but i decided to give it a try anyway.  The smittenkitchen recipe called for light brown sugar, but i opted for dark brown muscavado.  I like the richness and coarse texture of muscavado which i thought would enhance a ruggid bread like this.  I'll let you know after my office tasters try it tomorrow.

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted saslted butter
3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar (i used 1 cup of lightly packed dark brown muscavado)
1 egg, beaten (oops, i forgot to beat the egg first)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (i omitted and used a little extra cinnamon)
Pinch of ground cloves
1-1/2 cup of flour


Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. 
Mix in the sugar, egg (already beaten), vanilla and bourbon, then add the spices.
Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. 
Add the flour last and mix.
Pour the mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.
Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool on a rack.  Remove from pan and slice to serve.


The banana bread smells delish and is very moist.  I just hope everyone likes banana bread, because i'm not sure i do.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow to try something new.

4 comments:

  1. Lori, This is beautiful!! You did such a nice job. I love all of the pictures too.

    The banana bread was very good and I normally don't eat banana bread.:)

    Keep blogging and baking, I know you're enjoying it all!!

    XO

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  2. What a good first start!

    You really walked me through the process of making that B.B....and now I want to taste it! haha

    Also, where did you get the picture for the header at the top? It's a great pic, Lollie. haha

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  3. Thanks Deb & LJ for your support. The pictures were a montage that i assembled from my own pix - primarily my trip last year to Europe. Hopefully, as i get better with the camera, i'll change the pix around so that the montage includes pix i've done with the manual settings.

    XO

    PS - Of course i have BB for you!

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  4. Lori this really is great!! Beautiful and fun all rolled into one. The pics are beautiful and the bread looks good enough to eat. I absolutely will try it. Keep the recipes commin and you might give Paula, Giada, Ina or even Bobby a run for their butter!!
    ILY

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