About thirteen years ago when I was in college, trying to cook for myself on a tight budget without gaining the freshman fifteen (which is no joke, by the way), I started looking around for ways to use up leftover food. I adore bananas, and I always had them in the kitchen. However, since I was the only one eating them, I often had several left that would go bad in a day or two unless I did something with them immediately.
One of the first things I thought about was, of course, banana bread. Yet, I knew that every banana bread recipe I'd ever used contained large quantities of butter and sugar....they tasted more like banana cake than banana bread. So I did some searching, and ultimately I came up with my own recipe, based on the strengths of several different ones that I tried, and it has been a hit ever since. The bread comes out moist and delicious, with lots of banana flavor, but it uses about half the butter and sugar of other recipes I found.
Kristen's Banana Bread
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup (half of a stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 extra large eggs
3-4 mashed bananas
1/4 cup water
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
In the pictures below, I was making a double batch, so that the ingredients would be easier to see. It's easy to double the recipe, and this stuff never goes to waste! Here's how you make it:
You start, of course, with the good stuff...
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and position a rack right in the center. Spray muffin tins or a loaf pan with baking spray, so that the banana bread won't stick when it bakes.
Put sugar and butter (it needs to be a little soft, but not melted) into the mixer and cream them for a couple of minutes.
...add the eggs and mix some more...
This is what really ripe, about-to-go-bad-but-still-good bananas look like...
Just smash them with your hands and drop them in. Turn on the mixer to mash them a bit more (about a minute) before you move on.
Then turn the mixer off and drop in all the rest of the ingredients.
Turn the mixer back on low until the ingredients are just barely combined...
...like this. You don't want to overmix.
Then scrape down the sides of the mixer and give it one final stir with a rubber spatula.
Scoop the mixture into the prepared muffin or loaf pans. Again, I made a double recipe here, so I had four small loaves and six muffins. The normal recipe will make one big loaf or about 24 muffins.
Bake muffins for 20-24 minutes and bake large loaves for about an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (For big loaves, I use wooden grill skewers to test for doneness because toothpicks aren't big enough.) Turn the pans halfway through the baking process, so that they bake evenly.
They're done when they look like this!
Come to Mama, gorgeous...
...Mmmm...
Let them sit in the pans on cooling racks for about 10 minutes, then gently turn them out onto the racks to finish cooling. If I spray my bakeware before I put the batter in, my bread and/or muffins never stick, so you shouldn't need to use cupcake liners.
What other recipes might you like to see me post? How do you use leftover ingredients in your kitchen?
We LOVE banana bread around here! It's one of the only desserts that I make. I am always looking for a better way to make it a little healthier. I tried apple sauce instead of 1/4 cup butter one time (along with the other 1/4 cup of butter), and it came out pretty good, but yours looks delicious! I might try it!
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a great idea, Roxi! Can you send me your recipe, so that I can try it?
DeleteMmmmm. I've had your banana bread and it is delicious! Gonna pin this!
ReplyDelete