Thursday, March 6, 2014

Banana Bread


This is the first time I tried making banana bread and for sure it will not be the last :-).Microwaving the bananas enhances the banana flavor.The dark brown sugar gives a nice color and a tad bit of stickiness to the bread.
I recently re-read Little Men by L.M Alcott and from here I learnt that sour cream and baking soda reacts to make the batter fluffy with light airy holes.Who knew" Little Men"would be adding to my baking skills.

Ingredients
Ripe Bananas -3
All Purpose flour-1 and ½ cups
Sugar-1 cup (1/4th dark brown +3/4th granulated)
Unsalted butter-1/2 cup (1 stick softened at room temperature) 
Eggs-2 large
Baking soda-1 teaspoon
Salt-1 teaspoon
Sour Cream-1/2 cup
Vanilla essence-1 teaspoon
Chopped walnuts/pecans-1 cup
Method:
Peel bananas and put in microwave safe bowl. Wrap with bowl with a plastic wrap. Poke holes on the wrap and microwave for 5 mins.If banana has given out a lot of liquid, separate the liquid and reduce to about 2 tablespoons on stove top. Now add the liquid back to the microwaved banana and mash nicely with fork/masher.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside.
In a bowl whisk butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one by one and whisk in with butter and sugar. Add vanilla and whisk in this mixture.
In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients flour, baking soda and salt and whisk well.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well. Now add the mashed bananas. Add the sour cream and pecans/walnuts into the cake batter and incorporate.
Pour batter in the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. Let the pan rest for 15 mins then turn the banana cake out.