Banana bread

[redbird]

I have just eaten the end slice off the first loaf of banana bread I've ever baked. It's okay, not great--though I'm hoping the non-end pieces will be better, since I suspect the "dry" feeling came from the amount of well-cooked end/edge in the end slice.

I am feeling ridiculously domestic. Not because I baked banana bread--the recipe is right there in Fanny Farmer, though I used pecans because we don't have walnuts, and it's quite simple. I am feeling ridiculously domestic because of what prompted me to bake banana bread: not a deep desire for banana bread, or for home-baked sweets in general, but because I had two bananas that had turned dark brown, and this recipe seemed simpler than the banana cake a few pages later.

I think this is the first time I've actually used my grandmother's loaf pan, though I seem to recall either cattitude or adrian_turtle using it for either potatoes or yams last month.

The recipe calls for three ripe bananas, so I bought two more bananas, one for baking and one to eat plain. (Also some other groceries--and I had lunch at a cafe on Broadway, doing my part for the local economy during the transit strike both by working from home, hence getting paid my normal salary, and patronizing a local business.)

Addendum: I just had another slice of the banana bread. It really is too dry. I suspect the problem is that one of the bananas I used was still bright yellow, not black or even spotted brown. Next time I'll know this. "Only be sure, always to call it research."

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Have you read the Thomas Disch story "The Happy Turnip"?

In that story, there's a black banana that's depressed because it thinks nobody will eat it. The Happy Turnip tries to cheer it up by suggesting that maybe someone will make banana bread, and the banana says "Whoever made banana bread with one banana?" and refuses to be comforted. But in the happy ending, the human does exactly what you did, goes out and buys more bananas to make banana bread.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a good feeling to, um, snatch some bananas back from the very jaws of going to waste. I threw one in the freezer recently myself as it was getting dangerously close to the point of no return, and need to try to remember to use it in a smoothie or something one of these days.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Of course, you did peel the bananas first...

[redbird]

And the eggs.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

but because I had two bananas that had turned dark brown

*heh*. that's exactly why i baked banana bread a couple of days ago. mine was the best i ever made (which is modified by me not making banana bread all that often). now i am planning to buy bananas explicitly to let them rot.

[brooksmoses]

For what it's worth, my mom's banana-bread recipe normally uses pecans, so I suppose that means it's a canonical substitution or something. Her recipe also only uses two bananas, but I suspect it makes a smaller loaf.

The overripe bananas are usually what prompts me to make it, too.

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

I got a fantastic recipie for flapjacks that uses banana's as the main binding ingrediant. Sort of oaty nana bread. I love it.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

My banana bread usually comes out drier than I prefer, but I don't know why this is. Possibly banana bread should always be slightly undercooked rather than overcooked?

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

I have solved the dry banana bread problem by adding a little more sour cream than my mom's recipe calls for, as well as adding milk at the very end until the batter is smoother and lighter--it's kind of a "to taste" thing, I've never measured how much I put in. I suppose it's a flexible measure that has more to do with how liquid the bananas are than anything else. If you'd like the recipe, let me know.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

When my mashed bananas look a little low on volume, I sometimes add a few spoonfuls of applesauce. When recipes give amounts in "bananas" rather than "cups," it's uncertain.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I am a complete devotee of Mollie Katzen's banana bread recipe from The Moosewood Cookbook, which calls for soaking the banana pulp in coffee before cooking. This should work with any recipe, and the resulting bread does not taste like coffee, but is never dry and has a lovely tang to it.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Mollie's is the recipe I started from, for my banana bread. Never fails, and is v. forgiving. (I've done it with 1 or 2 eggs, 3 or 4 bananas, and varying amounts of yoghurt or sour cream.)

But I don't think the banana pulp is the problem; I think it might be the Fanny Farmer recipe. redbird, can you compare it to http://www.livejournal.com/users/porcinea/100937.html ? The color of the bananas should not be an issue.

(Huh. I didn't start from Mollie's. Apparently I used Joy of Cooking crossed with Bakers Illustrated.)