Apr

3

Baking Banana Bread

April 3, 2007 |

Baking Banana Bread

Ingredients and Kitchen Tools for Cooking Banana Bread

Before actually starting I have found it very beneficial to get all of your ingredients and kitchen tools out ahead of time. As you can see in the picture I have all of the ingredients, 2 bowls, wooden spoon, spatula, whisk, and a masher.

Follow these steps.

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

-Chop up 1 ¼ cup walnuts. You don’t need to chop them into dust just into chunks. Take the nuts and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes to help bring the flavor out.


Chopped Walnuts for Cooking Banana Bread

 

 

-Melt ¾ butter

For the dry ingredients do the following.

-Take the larger of the two bowls and mix in

-2 cups flour

- ¾ cup sugar

- ¾ teaspoon baking powder

- ½ teaspoon salt

-1 ¼ cups preheated walnuts

Take these and mix them up with a whisk and then set aside.

With the other ingredients do the following in this order.

-Take the smaller bowl and mix in

-2 large eggs slightly whisked

-1 teaspoon vanilla

- ¾ cup melted butter

- ¼ cup yogurt

-3 large very ripe bananas. If you look at the picture my bananas are fairly dark. Anything less then yellow is good but half blackened is really good.

Ripened Bananas for Cooking Banana Bread

Once this is all mixed in take the masher and mash the bananas in real good with the ingredients. Mash until it is thick and lumpy. Not real lumpy but you don’t want it really smooth either. Look at the picture below.

Mixed Ingredients Dry in Large Bowl Wet in Small Bowl Banana Bread

Once you have both bowls mixed take the wet bowl and fold it into the large dry bowl. You want to do this with a large spoon because you don’t want to over-stir it. Just stir it enough so that there is no flour still visible. Usually everything is different shades of yellow.

Folding Ingredients for Banana Bread

Mixed Banana Bread Ingredients for Cooking

 

Now take your bread pan and spray it with Pam or your favorite cooking spray and then take about ¼ cup of flour and dust it. I am kind of a freak about dusting so I usually spray a lot and then put a hefty ¼ cup of flour in. I do not like my food sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Dusted Banana Bread Pan Cooking

 

 

Once you have dusted your pan take the dough and with a spatula dump it all into the pan. I scrape the sides of the bowl to get all of it and then I gently hit the sides of the pan a few times to even it out a bit. Not flat but not super lumpy. Look at the following picture.

Now put it in the oven for 50-60 minutes. I always set my alarm for earlier and then check to see if it needs more time. Some people like theirs slightly under or over cooked. I tend to lean to the just right to slightly undercooked. But once it is golden brown it is done.

Ready for the oven Banana Bread

Pull it out of the oven and let it sit for a minute or two and then pick up the pan and tap the sides a couple of times to loosen it. I then take a plastic knife and go around the edge just in case. Once you have done that flip it out onto a clean counter and then set in on a cooling rack. Once there I leave it for a few minutes before cutting it with a bread knife.

Finished Banana Bread on Cooling Rack

There are other variations you can do such as replacing the walnuts with chocolate chips, coconut and macadamia nuts, or even orange peel but for the classic banana bread just bananas and walnuts.

Thank For Visiting My Kitchen,
David

, , , , , , , ,


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Lee on May 27, 2008 3:22 pm

    OK, I’ve read two posts and now I’m starving. I’ll be back after I start a couple of loaves of banana bread.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

    • Add to Technorati Favorites