I do not really consider myself a baker. I don't think people would say, "oh, I love her baked goods" Yet,I like to cook and I love to experience with recipes mostly because I never really have all the ingredients listed. I have tried a ton of banana bread recipes. I enjoy reading cookbooks and I usually just keep trying new recipes until I fall in love with one and then I put a little star with the date next to the recipe and write any substitions that I make so I can make it again. I am sure you are all enlightened now with that necessary information. "Get on with the recipe" I am sure you are thinking in your heads...
So, without further ado.
Best Banana Bread (Plus)
Gotta give credit to the lovely Mrs. Cleveland for the start of this recipe. Whenever she baked at church I always made sure to get one of her bars, cookies or goodies on my plate. I think her strong recipe foundation was a major reason why my fiddling with this recipe actually worked. So credit where credit is due....thank you Linda!
For real this time.
Best Banana Bread (Plus)
4 eggs (I doubled this recipe and instead of the doubled eggs I used flax seed.
1 egg = 1T flax and 3T water)
4 ripe bananas
1 cup oil (again I used flax for the doubled part(1T butter/marg/oil = 3T flax)
1/2 cup buttermilk (I never keep this on hand. I added 1T vinegar to 1 cup milk and waited a few minutes for it to curdle.)
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour (when I doubled I added 2 cups wheat and 1 1/2 cups white)
3 cups sugar (I am watching calories, so I used mostly splenda for cooking and I used one cup brown sugar when I doubled only because I am out of white sugar)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup walnuts or chocolate chips, optional (which do you think I used?)
Mix the wet ingredients, eggs, bananas, oil (yep, go ahead and put that flax seed in), milk and vanilla - if you want to add some brown sugar for flavor and color like I did put it in with the wet ingredients - it doesn't mix well with the dry:)
Stir or sift together the flour, sugar, soda and salt. HERE IS THE PART THAT MAKES IT LIGHT AND FLUFFY! Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until the dry disappears. Pour into loaf pans, I use a measuring cup and pour a little batter then I sprinkle the nuts or the chocolate chips then a little more batter. You can add the extras (chips, nuts) to the whole mixture if you like, just don't over stir it. I make some plain bread and some with chocolate chips so I do it when I am panning.
Bake at 325 for about an hour. My mini loaf pans were done at 30 minutes and my large loaves took longer than an hour. Just have a toothpick or butter knife handy and poke the loaves when they are starting to look done. If the pick/knife comes out clean, they are done!
This recipe makes about 12 mini loaves or 3 large loaves. Or a mixture of both:)
I doubled it and made 8 mini loaves, 2 medium sized loaves and 1 large loaf.
It's sweet and light and airy, not too dense. I like it this way:) This recipe has a star and some notes in my cookbook.
9 comments:
I am ashamed to admit that I did not know about the egg/flax/oil substitution, despite the fact that I have a big 'ol bag of (mostly unused) flax in the cupboard. I'm assuming that you substitute with it in its ground form.
I only make my mom's recipe. It's really very imperfect, but I have refused to mess with it just because it's hers. It goes like this:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup mashed bananas
as many chocolate chips as batter will hold
I always, always double or triple it.
I am going to give some serious consideration to messing with it a bit.
so, are you saying instead of 4 eggs, you use 3 eggs and 1 of the flax seed subst? or all flax?
i have never heard about this one either - kind of scarey.
they are so pretty!!!! i am more of a 'nut' girl than a choc chip girl, though, so i would have to stick to that....
now, i just need a couple bananas. i love how you are explaining how to double and triple, and i am trying to figure out how to half ;)
Karen, yes ground form, I have a jar of the ground stuff and a bag of seeds that I can grind if I want to feel crunchy.
I have experimented a lot and I think this one will be my go to from now on. Try substituting once and I promise you will do it in everything.
I use it in cakes, pancakes, waffles, breads, cookies...I love that stuff.
Bobbi - actually I used 4 eggs and then 4x the flax substitute. But you could use 2 eggs and 2T of flax with water or you could just sub one egg with flax to try it out.
I have to admit I use flax more often for eggs than for fat (ie butter, oil, marg.) because I am afraid of the dryness. But, I sure could use a little less fat in my life right now...so I should probably start subbing all my oil and butter with flax and see what happens. I would also be much more regular, he he he...
ok. are you saying that flax with water is the same as an egg?
sorry, i'm a little slow.
carey, yep, well I wouldn't fry it up in a pan and eat it with toast, but it works in baked goods...
that is almost hard to believe. but i am going to try it!!!
and I can't believe I haven't told you all I have been using flax seed, I was sure I had mentioned the substituting before...
No, I think I would have remembered. I'm going to find something to bake today, just so I can try it.
I just made up a gigantic meatloaf and instead of eggs for glue I used flax seed and water. Which is super great because I decided not to cook it since Carey said she is making fajitas! So, I popped it in the freezer with no worries about the icky raw eggs!
Good luck, Karen. Let me know if your family can tell the difference.
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