Putting the Banana in your Bread

Mmmmm – nothing quite like fresh bread out of the oven. Specifically, beautiful, brown crusted, spiced fruit bread. With the incoming fall, nothing warms up the kitchen, or the tummy, quite like it either.

Well, to be honest, I don’t need a chilly morning to enjoy baking bread. So here we are, getting ready to make some yummy banana bread.

First, gather your ingredients. I use both White and Wheat flours for this recipe, and one of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten about working with wheat flour is to include about a tbsp of wheat gluten for every 1/2 cup of wheat flour you use. It boosts the wheat flours ability to make bouncy light bread.

You’ll also need baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, eggs, butter, sugar and of course, some super ripe BANANAS!

So grab a big bowl and a medium bowl and lets get to mixing up some bread.

First steps first, as always, grab your ingredients.

In your big bowl, place your two flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, wheat gluten, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix your dry ingredients together and swirl a little well into the middle of it. Put this bowl aside until later.

Get together your bananas, eggs, butter and sugar next. Feel free to use less sugar then the full cup I put in. I’ve used as little as a half a cup and had it turn out very tasty.

Get to peeling those bananas. To get a good mushy banana, I use a potato masher. It is for mashing after all!

After the bananas are mashed, add in your sugar, eggs and melted butter. I just pop my butter in the microwave for ten second intervals until liquid.

Now that your two mixes are ready, its time to take the liquid and pour it into the dry all at once. Fold the dry ingredients into the liquid until well incorporated.

Get your mixture into your pan and bake at 350 f for 45 minutes.

After baking for 45 minutes, the bread will be browned on the outside, but don’t let this fool you. The inside will be pretty raw still. So grab some oven mitts, get that pan out of the oven and tent some aluminum foil over the top. This will act as an insulator and keep the heat in the bread, cooking the insides faster while keeping the crust from burning.

Pop that pan back in the oven for an additional 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and crumb free.

 

With your bread done cooking, get it back out of the oven and cooling in the pan for 10 minutes. Afterwards, carefully remove the bread from the pan and let cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.

Or slice right into it, throw a slab of butter on it and try not to burn yourself as you eat three slices. It’s okay if the bread doesn’t last the whole day, I think everyone knows fruit breads like this are best still warm out of the oven. And banana bread is such a quick and simple recipe to make, it becomes quite addicting on these chilly fall mornings and you could theoretically make a new loaf everyday anyway.

When storing the bread I wrap it in tinfoil and throw it in the fridge. It CAN last for several days like this, but never does in our house.

Quick Recipe

Banana Bread

Ingredients-

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil or melted butter
• 5 ripe bananas
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1 tbsp wheat gluten
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease your bread pan
2. In a large bowl, mix together both flours, the wheat gluten, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Once well mixed,  make a well in the middle of it.
3. In another smaller bowl, mash your peeled bananas until mushed.
4. once your bananas are well mashed, pour in your sugar, oil or butter and your eggs. mix these ingredients together.
5. Now pour your liquid banana mix into the well of your dry mix. Fold the dry ingredients into the liquid until fully incorporated.
6. Once completely mixed, pour the batter into the greased bread pan and place the pan in your oven for 45 minutes.
7. After baking for the first 45 minutes, the bread will look cooked, but will still be quite wiggly and raw in the middle. Get out your tinfoil and tent a piece around the bread. Bake like that for an additional 15 minutes are until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Let the bread cool in the pan for ten minutes. Once you remove the bread from the pan, let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Now go make yourself some bread, and try not to burn yourself on the first slice!

Until next time, have a wicked good day!