Monday, May 31, 2010

I have how many bananas in the freezer?

When we moved to this house I was a little embarrassed at how many bananas were in our deep freezer.  I think it was 13 or so.  It's been over a year since the move and I've cooked through all of those bananas but yet the freezer never seems to be without them.  That's OK though because we love banana bread.  My only problem with banana bread is that it always seems to be so greasy.  I have now found a recipe, and modified it a little bit, so that we have lovely, moist banana bread that isn't excessively greasy.  And it passes the kid test; K & P love it.



Best-Ever Banana Bread
Adapted from Favorite Family Meals by Annabel Karmel
Yields 2 loaves

1/4 c butter
1/2 c unsweetened applesauce
1 c    brown sugar
1       egg
1 lb   bananas, mashed (about 3 bananas)
3 T    plain yogurt (I use heaping tablespoons)
1 t     pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 t     baking soda
1 t     ground cinnamon
1/4 t  salt (more than half of the time I omit this)
3/4 c  raisins (we love them but they are certainly optional)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease and line two loaf pans. 
  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy, then add the egg and continue to beat until smooth.  I use the paddle attachment on my mixer for this.
  3. Add the bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  I don't pre-mash my bananas but rather let my mixer do all of the work.
  4. Stir together, preferably using a whisk, the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and add to banana mixture in at least two additions, mixing well in between each.  Rather than sift the dry ingredients together I stir them with a whisk per Martha Stewart.  (Whom I love.  But more about that another day.)
  5. Mix in the raisins.
  6. Bake for about 1 hour rotating the pans after 30 min.  The loaves shouldn't be jiggly and a sharp knife or toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the centre of the loaves.

The original recipe says that it makes 1 loaf and yields 8 slices.  That's one crazy large loaf with very generous slices.  I make two loaves and get about 14 1.5cm slices per loaf.

Note about the loaf pans: I use silicone loaf pans that I sit inside disposable aluminum loaf pans.  I have found that I have to sit the silicone pan inside something or else one of the sides gives and I have banana bread batter all over the bottom of my oven.  Trust me when I tell you that while this smells delicious, it's a real pain to clean up.  Oh, and lest you think I'm not environmentally friendly, I keep reusing the same disposable pans.

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