Never-fail banana bread

The banana trees we planted will probably not start bearing fruit for about another year now, but luckily bananas are pretty inexpensive around here – I can buy three for about 10 cents. I always try to have some on hand for banana bread, one of my favorite snacks and breakfast foods.

I’ve tried different banana bread recipes but many call for a lot of sugar and oil, several eggs, and milk. Some of them turn out so sugary it’s really like dessert. Frankly I don’t want to feel like I’m eating cake for breakfast. I want to eat something that I don’t feel bad about having two pieces of. Or three.

I’ve adapted this banana bread recipe from one that was in our country’s Peace Corps cookbook. It is dairy-free, unless you want to substitute milk for some of the water, which would perhaps lend a richer taste to the bread. Water works just fine when I make it.

I’ve made this recipe many times and it always turns out well. If the bananas are very ripe, you might be able to get away with using less sugar. Use whatever spices and type of oil you like best. You could also try substituting whole wheat flour for part of the flour portion if you’d like to make it even healthier.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground spices (I use 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon cloves or ginger – depending on what I have on hand)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons oil (I use sunflower oil)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 very ripe, average-sized bananas (more or less dependent on size)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
• 1 cup water
• Chopped nuts and/ or chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.
• In a medium or large bowl, combine the oil and sugar. Add the bananas and mash well with a fork. Add the egg, vanilla, and water, and stir well.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until no flour is visible in the batter. Fold in chopped nuts or chocolate chips if desired.
• Grease and flour a baking pan – I use about an 8″ round pan. You could use loaf pans if you want rectangular banana bread. Depending on the size of the pans you might need two.
• Pour the batter into the pans, smoothing with a spoon or spatula so that the batter is relatively level in the pan.
• Bake for about 45-50 minutes (less if the batter is divided), until a fork or toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool in pan for about one-half to one hour, then remove and put on a rack to continue cooling. Cut, serve, and enjoy.

What are your favorite recipes that use bananas?

Humbled by bread: this week’s lessons

I’ve made the same simple white loaf three times in the past week and still haven’t gotten it quite right. Perhaps it’s due to the cold weather, my impatience, my inexperience, or all three. So instead of sharing my secrets for how to bake a perfect loaf, I am humbled to share the lessons I’ve learned while making my rookie mistakes.

Lesson #1: Warmth or sunshine is not enough for a yeast dough to rise. I put the dough in its covered basin and plunked it on my sunny, breezy afternoon porch. Now, if you read good breadmaking advice (which I did) and then follow it (which I didn’t), you will realize the importance of choosing a location that is both warm and draft-free. That batch felt those drafts and languished low and cold.

Lesson #2: Don’t make bread when you’re rushed or impatient. On days I started baking in the late afternoon, I didn’t give the dough enough time as I rushed to get it in the oven before dark. If you don’t allow proper time for kneading, rising, and baking, the bread’s quality will suffer. After that mistake, I realized that if I’m bothering to make homemade bread at all, I might as well do it right and not rush.

Lesson #3: The loaf should sound beyond-all-doubt hollow. When you take that beautiful golden-brown loaf out of the oven, flip it over, and give it a thump, it should sound definitively hollow. If it doesn’t, put it back in, find something else to do for a few minutes, and come back to check again.

Despite my misadventures this week with low-sitting dough and trying to beat the clock, nothing beats cutting off a warm slice of fresh-baked bread and tasting that delicious crunchy crust. You just can’t get in a store.

What are your best breadmaking tips or advice?