Lovin' From the Oven

cooks illustrated, best banana bread

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I did a whole bunch of baking last night for today, and while I was at it, my mom requested that I bake some banana bread for her. My family’s very traditional and simple– it’s always the same things that they request for me to bake. My little sister always wants cupcakes, my dad always wants everything cookies, and my mom always wants banana bread.

I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe and adapted it a teeny bit (you can see my additions in green). My mom and aunt loved it, but they rarely ever hate a banana bread. To me, it was just okay. Very moist and dense, but perhaps not cinnamon-y enough for me. I actually had the best banana bread while I was in Utah and one of the girls I stayed with baked it. I’ll have to make a mental note to ask her for the recipe because seriously, it was the BEST. I inhaled it.

Side note, since it was such a success last year, I’m doing my 12 days of cookies again this year. Starting.. on my next post! 🙂

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all purpose flour (unbreached) and some for dusting
  • 1 1/4 cups walnuts coarse chop (optional)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 very ripe bananas mashed well
  • 1/4 cup plain yogurt
  • 2 large eggs lightly beaten
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cool
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the topping:

  • Mix together 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon white sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon.

Preparation

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and walnuts together in a large bowl; set aside.

4. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle top with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

5. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (The bread can be wrapped with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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Eeeeeep! I just needed a little motivation to get off my butt and start baking again and you guys did just that. Thanks for all the emails/comments that I’ve been getting recently! It shows that I still had visitors even though I didn’t update for a month. 🙁

I actually had a free night for once in my life and found the time to get the oven going. There were three overly ripe bananas hanging in my kitchen, so it wasn’t hard figuring out what to make. I adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com and halved it. I can’t rave about this recipe enough! It definitely deserves the 5 stars it got on allrecipe. The bread is so moist and flavorful. The chocolate chips accent the banana perfectly. You’ve gottta give this a shot, it’s so easy to make, too! I also used smaller loaf pans, so I kept my eye on the baking time and took it out about 5 minutes earlier than what the original recipe says. Lastly, I replaced the mayo with milk because 1. mayo’s gross (no offense), 2. I didn’t even have mayo on hand, and 3. it’s healthier! The original version of the recipe can be found HERE. My changes are as follows:

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease loaf pans.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg, beating well. Stir in the milk and bananas. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture; stir just enough to evenly combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
  3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool loaf in the pan for 20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Banana Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting

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Yay for finally being home and being able to bake! Baking really is such a great stress reliever for me. I was supposed to go out last night but the plans fell through, so I stayed home and baked instead. My mom had some ripe bananas (I swear she buys fruit in bulk so that I would make something out of them when they’re too ripe to eat) and suggested that I make something with them. I’ve already made banana bread a million and two times, so I settled for a cake instead. Honestly, there isn’t that much of a difference between banana bread and banana cake. They both taste the same.. one’s just a tiny bit lighter than the other. I added a bit of yogurt and oil to make the cake a bit moister, and that definitely did the trick. I baked the batter in one 9 inch pan and the other into a mini loaf pan. I don’t think there was enough batter to make two 9 inch cakes, but there would be for an 8 inch round pan. The cake was just okay in my opinion, but I’m not really a fan of banana desserts unless it’s banana flambe. Mmmmmm… banana flambe…

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.

Cream together the butter and the sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Add bananas and vanilla extract; mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool and frost cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

4 ounces low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 stick ( 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 pound or about 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 to 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
Finely chopped toasted pecans and toasted pecan halves

In a large bowl, working with your mixer of choice, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar and keep beating until the frosting is very smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.

Frost the cake and decorate the sides with the chopped walnuts.

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