Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Second life: banana bread


When I don't finish a bunch of bananas before they turn mushy and limp I welcome the lucky opportunity to give the spoils a new life in banana bread. I have a tried an true recipe that I recently started dressing up with an idea from Donna Hay: placing sliced bananas on the top, brushing with melted butter and sprinkling with sanding sugar (my tweak). Because it's always hard to devour an entire loaf (well, at least without guilt), I like baking several in smaller paper loaf pans. That way, I can keep one for breakfast and gift the others. I've had this recipe for ages and have no idea where it came from!

No fail banana bread


1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar or brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 mashed bananas
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Optional garnish (one large banana, melted butter to brush on top and sanding sugar to finish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time and blend thoroughly.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients (except nuts).

Gradually combine butter mixture and dry ingredients. Stir in bananas. Stir in vanilla extract. Add nuts, if using.

Pour into 2 large loaf pan or thee small loaf pans (greased or non-stick). If desired, arrange banana slices on top, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sanding sugar (note that topping will only "keep" for a day or so).

Bake for 1 hour, ten minutes if using a large loaf pan and 50 minutes if using small pans (or until a cake tester comes out clean). Let cool before serving.

5 comments:

Catastrophe Waitress said...

Good lord, but that looks absolutely scrumptious. I will definitely give it a try. I LOVE banana bread! Just a quick question, what on earth is that sugar you use on the top? I've never heard of it before!

Simones Kitchen said...

That is one gorgeous looking banana bread and what a great idea to bake them in smaller tins! My guy is allergic to bananas, so I always have to eat it all by myself... and making smaller portions will make it easier to freeze or give away!

Unknown said...

The bananas on top add a nice touch but mine did not look as fresh as yours. I added 4 tablespoons of sour cream and upped the flour by about 1/3 cup. The melted butter and sanding sugar are fun and makes the presentation much nicer than just plain old banana bread.

Chaoszilla: said...

Slurp. Cool blog!

lorraine pennington said...

thank you for this recipe i lost mine and this was the one i had minus the
cool idea on top with the bananas .

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