Banana bread isn't served just for breakfast or brunch, you can also serve it as a dessert. Cut it up into little slices, spread on a plate, microwave it, get it warmed, put some vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce on it, and there you go.
I'm going to get started. The first thing we're going to do is, I've got the oven preheated at 350 degrees. Right here, I've got -- I don't think we'll be able to find these in the stores, we can find the individual miniature loaves. I've got 12 here, so I'm just going to spray in non-stick before we start so you don't forget, just as easy like that.
Then we're going to start with our dry ingredients. I'm going to sift on; probably you will have this at home, but you can use just a regular strainer or colander, we don't want the fine mesh like that, that's why I use, because I don't have one of these either. The reason we're going to sifting everything is because we've got baking soda and sometimes it has clumps in also the flour. If you buy in to -- that's pretty -- it's not really a good texture.
So I've got 2 1/2 cups of flour, and this recipe does yield the 12 little miniature loaves. You just want to push it through with my hand. So make sure you wash your hands before you start this. Then after we get that, we've got two cups of sugar, two teaspoons of baking soda and one teaspoon of salt.
When you're baking, don't forget to add the salt, because it won't make your ingredients for you just salty, it will act as a flavor enhancer. So that just brings up the natural flavors. So it's important to do that with baking cookies and everything else too. So, at the end, smoosh it through, all the lumps in, just get this stuff to a side. Alright!
So, now that there are all of the dry ingredients in the bowl, we're going to work on the wet ingredients. The first one we're going to do is the bananas. Now these are the bananas I'm going to be using, and don't be scared because they look a little brown, but honestly, the darker they are, the sweeter they become, and the softer they are to work with.
So we want two cups of bananas that we're going to smoosh. So it's about five, all you want to do is just grab a bowl and just peel them and put them right in. This is good to do with your hands, if you've got kids -- now you're probably the little older one, and will be doing this, but if you've got a little kid, a little niece or nephew, they just want to do this, it's fun to.
Alright! Yeah, so I mean, I came up to this Banana Bread recipe just one day, because someone wanted some. I was just looking online kind of getting ideas. What makes this banana bread unique is, we also add walnuts, but we also add crumbed banana, which kind of heightens the banana flavor in this.
So, if you are using bananas that aren't right, you can just bump up that or you can even go to imitation, banana extract, which is also good, but those tend to be a little bit overpowering and kind of have a imitation flavor. We're going to just start with this and see what it looks like. Just grab a fork, see, it's pretty easy. Like I said you all just have your kids involve too.
So, I'm going to get all incorporated. It doesn't have to be perfect, because you're just going to mix it up with all ingredients too. I've got a measuring cup like this, but you probably don't have this at home, just use a regular one. Actually, I'm going to use my hands, if you guys don't mind, don't worry, I'll wash them. Here we go, about two cups, and I'm just going to put it right back in the bowl, because we're going to just add the other ingredients to it too.
So, we've got the two cups of smooshed bananas right here. Then we're going to add two cups of oil. I like to use the oil -- and as opposed to shortening, you can also use shortening but it doesn't blend as easily. That looks like a big mess right now, but we'll work it and get it better. So, we just smoosh the bananas and the oil, splash around a little bit. You guys can use your hands for this too, but I'd rather not right now.
Then we've got four eggs, we're going to add, one at a time, incorporating after each one. These are large eggs. Usually most baking recipes call for the large eggs as opposed to the jumbo or peewee, it's just because that's just the normal standard size. I'm just kidding, we're going to add two and then mix it in. So we've got two here. I'm going to add two more. I think that I like to cut the eggs on the counter as opposed to side of the bowl, just in case a little piece of shell drops in, it's just easier. I clean up a little bit.
Alright! Just keep mixing it. This was going to look like that, doesn't really look that great, but then we're going to add three tablespoons of the Banana Liqueur right here. You can just find this at your regular liqueur store, grocery store, if you haven't say -- like I said before, this just kind of enhances the flavor a little bit. This gives a little extra something. So just mix that into the wet ingredients too.
Alright! We're just going to set that aside. I've got here one cup of walnuts. I don't have them toasted, but if you prefer to toast them just put them in a frying pan with no oil sort of low heat until you start smelling the aromas. I prefer to keep mine untoasted, just because I think the flavor is better in the banana bread. I'm just going to chop this, you just want to hold the tip of the knife down, just block it, keep your finger straight on the blade, don't crawl them, because you could nick your fingertip off, which I've done before. So, that's why I don't do that anymore.
Since we're making miniature loaves, I like to cut the walnuts a little bit smaller, just say when you bite into it it's not big huge piece of walnut, that overpowers. Instead of walnuts you can omit them totally if you have a nut allergy or you can add the corns or almonds. You can pretty much change this recipe, adapt this however you want. Add some fruit nut, other nuts too if you want. So, that's pretty it. I'm just going to scoop them up, put them in here, wet ingredients, kind of mix it up together too.
Alright, now I'm going to grab the dry ingredients. Since this is in a larger bowl, I'm just going to mix the wet ingredients straight in, just pour it in. Now it just looks so appetizing right now, you guys can't wait to eat it. But it will be good, and you can smell, the bananas, once they are ripe like that, they have a great aroma. They are sweeter like I said before too. So you just want to keep mixing this until all combines together. Just stir it around, make sure you get all the dry ingredients in, just like I said you don't want to bite into a big chunk of flour or baking soda, little pocket of it.
Okay, almost done. These are going to go into the 350 degree oven after I fill in. They're going to bake for about 20-25 minutes. You're just going to bake them until, when you stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean. Don't bother, I'm going to walk over here and grab the pan, going to the store and buying one of those metal cake testers that they sell for $5. This is so waste of money. I mean, the toothpick works just the same way. If you don't have toothpicks, go ahead and just use a regular blade of a knife.
So this I'm going to divide equally. You just pour it in, you start from the middle. It's going to be about three quarters of the way full for each one. I just want to scoop it in. It's kind of withered down almost. I'm going to use up a side. This is one of the cleanest thing, but baking -- most people shouldn't be intimidated by baking, a lot of people are, because they think, it has to be so exact. But if you follow the recipe and the procedures, you really can't go wrong. So I'll just keep filling. I'm now going to fill six of them, but when you're doing this at home, go out and fill all 12. There we go, just clean the edge a little bit.
So, yeah, 350 degree oven, 20-25 minutes until they're done. Then just take them out. Before you eat them, let them cool about ten minutes before you take them out of the pan, so they're still warm but they're cool enough to handle. Then just serve them as is or like I said with icecream or however you want. That's Banana Bread.
This is what the finished product looks like, I've to get this all the way. It's going to be a nice golden brown ,and you can serve them like this, serve them one. I would microwave them for about 30 seconds. If you want to, you can stick them back in the oven, and they also freeze really well too. So, if you want to make all 12 and you only have four people or so, just wrap up the other ones in plastic wraps, just freeze them, date them, and they'll last for a month or two. And here's Banana Bread.
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