Banana Nut Bread

Thankyou Lynne, I have some bananas here that I'm not eating fast enough and I'd rather not eat all the sugar and butter that goes into a banana cake. I think I'll start on that right now!

That's exactly why I tried this recipe too. Bought 5 large bananas and nobody else in the family was eating them. All 5 got perfectly ripe on the same day and after eating one 2 days in a row the thought of 3 more days of banana eating didn't sound appealing. Mashed them up and made this bread. The banana bread.... now that I had help with.

Lynne

Well, I made it and it's delicious! It is now my '(semi-)sweet treat bread' of choice, edging out the raisin 'tea loaf' that I used to make from time-to-time.

I used the NZ standard conversion of 1 cup flour being 125g and 1 (standard imperial) cup of water being 225ml to arrive at 340g of flour and 120ml of water. However I couldn't work out the hydration from the recipe as I didn't know how to factor in the bananas. As with all new recipes I watched it closely during the kneading stage and I had to add around 100g more flour (nearly a cup) before it formed a kneadable ball of dough that looked to be around 65% hydration. Before that it was like a thick batter and didn't form a ball.

It could well be that my bananas were bigger than yours. I see that you state medium bananas. We only get two sizes here, small and large and I only buy the large ones.

The (slightly) modified recipe made an excellent loaf that had a good crumb and great flavour. Thanks again for sharing, I really appreciate this recipe. When I first got my ABM I googled for 'ABM banana bread' but all I got were cake-style recipes and I stopped looking after reading about 30 or so. This is exactly what I was looking for.

I had the same problem as you did. The recipe called for medium and I had large. I too, added more flour to get it into a kneadable ball. I didn't measure. Probably should have. I do wish recipes had a weight for things like bananas, so one would know how much to add.

I always peek in on the kneading stage to make sure I don't need to add flour or water to get the dough to the proper consistency.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. I'm so glad you enjoyed it too.

Regards, Lynne

Here is another banana bread recipe with a more fiber if anyone needs that. It calls for 3 bananas which they equate to 2 cups sliced.

• Exported from MasterCook *

Banana Oatmeal Bread

Recipe By : Serving Size : 18 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

-------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 Cup Oats, Rolled (raw) -- old fashioned 2 Cups Flour, All-purpose Unbleached KA 1 Cup Flour, Whole-grain Wheat 1 Teaspoon Salt 1 Tablespoon Powdered Milk 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg 2 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast 1 Each Egg 1/4 Cup Sour Cream 3 Each Bananas, Whole -- sliced, 2 cups. 1 Tablespoon Butter 2 Tablespoons Honey

Bake at 350

Yield: "18 Slices" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 134 Calories; 2g Fat (14.7% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 25g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber;

15mg Cholesterol; 133mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Thank you Susan, looks interesting but I'm not one to have sour cream around the place. In fact I don't even remember ever buying it. .

Always good to have more recipes though, I've added this one to my collection. While it's healthier I might stick to Lynne's recipe and just limit myself (yeah, like that's worked before... ;-) ).

This is by far my favourite banana bread recipe. Chuck all the ingredients in a mixer, make the batter then bung it in the oven. Nice and easy! Our local independent grocer gave my wife a bag full of bananas for free as they were over-ripe and he couldn't sell them, so we made a few batches of this. The house smelt amazing all day. :)

Ingredients

225g/8oz self-raising flour 100g/4oz butter 150g/5oz caster sugar 450g/1lb Fairtrade bananas (the softer the better), peeled and mashed ½ tsp salt 2 eggs 175g/6oz mixed dried fruit

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Mix all the of the ingredients except the dried fruit together. You can do this in a food processor or by hand in a mixing bowl.
3. When the ingredients are all thoroughly combined, fold in the dried fruit.
4. Spoon the batter mixture into a 1kg/2lb non-stick loaf tin, spread it out evenly and bake it for one and a half hours. (NB. Oven temperatures vary so the banana bread may not need the full one and a half hours to cook through. Check the progress of the banana bread regularly to make sure it is not burning. If the top of the loaf is browning too quickly, but a skewer inserted into the centre does not come out clean, cover the loaf with aluminium foil and continue cooking until a skewer pushed into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.)
5. When the banana bread has risen, golden-brown on top and cooked through, remove it from the oven and set aside to cool on a wire rack. Slice before serving.

Where is the nuts?

Ask the squirrels!