Some Damned Good Banana Bread
    What makes this banana bread so good is that it has a story behind it.
    This is the second time in a month I've purchased bananas with the intention of letting them ripen, then making banana bread. I forgot about the first batch, swinging in the fruit basket, and they ripened to the moldy liquefaction, which I noticed when observing some sort of sticky substances dropping onto other fruit in the baskets below. A few days later I came home with replacement bananas...
    ...about which I forgot until yesterday. They were blackened and had begun to host mold on the skin, but no liquid was evident in the bag. "Why not," I reasoned, "just peel the mold off with the skin? I'll bet the fruit inside is so ripe it's only fit for banana bread."
    That's when I noticed the winey smell. I think I mentioned that yesterday. Or, maybe that was mentioned to my mom, not you. Anyway, I do remember commenting on this to Mom and saying, "This bread should have a really robust flavor."
    My mother saw fit not to comment except with raised eyebrows. She likes banana bread, you see, but it had better be so rich with banana flavor that it could pass for the fruit. Her favorite way of eating bananas is out of the skin, slightly soft. She doesn't like banana flavoring in other foods, except in well appointed banana bread. I'm this way about bananas, too, only more so; I won't eat the banana raw unless it's just this side of green. So, it's not hard for me to find appropriate banana bread recipes.
    The last try was straight out of Joy of Cooking, and was good, but needed some work, primarily because of our high altitude. I made no adjustments and it showed. It's primary attraction is that all the liquid comes from bananas, except for the inclusions of eggs. Thus, it is loaded with bananas.
    I wondered, though, if, somewhere along the line, I'd bookmarked any promising banana bread recipes. Sure enough, there was the one I was destined to use, with enough alterations so that I can confidently publish it without citing the source...it would be too confusing if I did that, anyway, because my changes, while they seem to be minor, turn out to be important.
    This recipe also features all fluids from bananas and eggs. Here it is. I'll talk about it, later.*  *  *  *  *Damn Good Banana Bread Recipe

Dry Ingredients:
1⅓ cups unbleached, high altitude, all purpose flour
⅔ cup unbleached, high altitude, wheat flour
¾ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Other Dry Ingredients:
¾ cup (or more, to taste, I think I used close to a cup) finely chopped walnuts.
scant ¾ cup brown sugar

Dry Ingredients Preparation:
    Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl (which will be your final mixing bowl).

Wet Ingredients:
2 cups mashed overripe bananas
¾ cup butter
2 jumbo eggs

Wet Ingredients Preparation:
    In a separate bowl cream the butter (which should be room temperature or a bit warmer, but not liquid) and brown sugar with a mixer until it looks a little like whipped cream.
    Mix in eggs one at a time (I did not beat them, first) with mixer. Stir in mashed bananas until well blended. Yes, the mixture will look ooky...the butter and bananas will not combine smoothly. Don't worry about this. You don't want them too because part of the magic of this recipe is what happens to the bread as the small chunks of banana bake into it.

Inclusion Preparation:
    Stir banana mixture into flour mixture. Stir enough to moisten. Fold in walnuts. A note on the walnuts: My preference, often, this loaf included, is to chop the nuts so fine that they're like a coarse meal. This releases oils, thus the flavor. In banana bread, this makes a BIG difference.
    Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. This recipe well fills, not too little, not too much, a flared, 9¼" x 5¼" x 2¾" aluminum pan; a pan that is part of Mom's original collection of fruit cake baking pans and was originally purchased on Guam or previously. It and its kin remain my favorite loaf pans. For reasons discussed later in the recipe, it is smart to line the pan with overlapping aluminum foil, heavy gage, and grease (or, as I did, Pam) the interior of the lined pan.

    Bake in preheated 350° oven for 60 minutes or until the loaf has raised, is golden brown and a thin skewer inserted one inch from the center of the loaf comes out clean. In my oven, it took exactly 60 minutes. The crust was an attractive Burnished Old Gold brown. The loaf had been scenting the house delectably for the previous half hour.
    If you did not line your baking pan with aluminum foil, let the loaf cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. Immediately wrap the loaf securely in aluminum foil and put it up to mellow for 18 - 24 hours. I usually also encase it in a large plastic bag and close the bag securely, just to "make sure". I recommend doing this with all quick bread loaves. It enhances the moisture, texture and flavor.
    You may need to increase amounts of leavening ingredients or decrease, slightly, liquids, for this to work perfectly at lower altitudes.
*  *  *  *  *    The use of brown instead of white sugar, by the way (I always use the darkest brown I can find), adds a hint of caramel, which enhances the banana flavor. It reminds of me eating fried bananas on Guam. These bananas were the local variety, closer to plantains, really, except the color of bananas. We had three prolific trees on the swampy side of our house. They were small, pungent in both aroma and flavor, very firm even when very ripe and could be stored (on the tree) almost forever. One of the local desserts, which Mom occasionally cooked for us, was peeling these ripe, firm bananas, splitting them lengthwise, rolling them in brown sugar and frying them briefly in a hot skillet full of sizzling butter.
    You'll also notice that this recipe doesn't include vanilla. It wouldn't hurt if you want to add a teaspoon, but I don't think it needs vanilla; the bananas, finely chopped walnuts and dark brown sugar give this load a superior flavor.
    Our loaf ripened overnight in its aluminum foil plaster. I tried a piece just a half hour ago. Oh, my, my! At room temperature, without any kind of smear, this bread is perfect. It is moist and firm, highly fragrant and flavored, its texture much enhanced by the addition of whole wheat flour. It has some heft. It is not melt-in-your-mouth cupcake sweet bread, although it's plenty sweet. You have to chew this stuff...and reap the benefits!
    So, needless to say, I'm pleased with this one and want to be able to refer back to it, so I'm cybermortalizing it here.
    If you like banana bread, you've gotta try this. I recommend, though, you let your intended bananas go at least until the skins are completely black...perhaps it is not necessary to wait for skin mold. If skin mold happens, though, never fear. That's where my bananas were at. I discarded none of them. Although I can't attest to the flavor of the winey smelling fruit, in the bread, the condition of the meat only deepened and ripened the banana flavor.
    No, Mom hasn't tried it yet. She's not up. I'll report back.
    I did, by the way, use real butter. When I type "butter", I mean "butter". Otherwise, I'll type something else.
    I think I'll slice myself another piece before I go over to the main journal and direct visitors here.
    Mmmm...even the bread smells like wine. I assure you, though, it does not taste like wine.

Labels: banana bread

- posted by Gail Rae @ 10:04   email...this post