I'm not a big fan of bananas. Or better: I'm not a big fan of banana cakes. I think bananas on their own are fine, I really like fried or flambe' banana and as a kid I'd fight with my brothers to dip bananas into Nutella. But for some strange reason I can't come to terms with the banana-cake match (as well as with pineapple or coconut cakes). I had, I have to admit, never tried banana bread.
I first discovered the existence of such, at least in a wider sense, cake in the UK. One of the smaller stalls of the Cambridge market was occupied by a friendly looking guy selling, between health food goods, nice looking banana breads. I never bought one: my "budget" at the time was a bit on the short side and although tempted I didn't want to waste money on something I might have ended throwing away. But the curiosity remained.
So last Saturday I finally decided to make some myself. First I needed some ripe bananas which means: buy some bananas and let them ripen. After a few days, bananas starting to get nicely mushy, I could bake the "object of my desires" :-). I started from the recipe in Eric Truille and Ursula Ferrigno's Bread, looked around the web for other sources and came up with a version that appealed to me the most.
The recipe I used:
250 g. (8 oz) flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
I sifted those ingredients together and added 60 g. (2 oz) coarsely chopped hazelnuts. I would have liked to use pecans, but I never saw any here. My next choice were walnuts, but I had none. So it had to be hazelnuts.
I then mixed together 1 egg, 175 ml (6 fl oz) milk, 140 g. (5 oz) sugar and 2 Tbs dark rum. I poured this into the flour, mixed just enough to get a batter and then added 3 mashed bananas, about 350 g. (12 oz), 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp bourbon vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg. After mixing the minimum necessary the batter went into a loaf tin, buttered and floured. The original recipe calls for a 1 kg (2 lbs) tin. Since I have none, I split the batter into two 500 g ones which went into a 180C (350F) pre-heated oven where it baked for about 1 hour, till done (I checked with the traditional toothpick method). Oh my, the smell as they baked! I took the breads out, let them cool slightly in their tins and then turned them out onto a wire rack.
Since I was, as usual, itching to try out how the bread had turned out I decided to let one cool completely (and bring it the next day at work) and to cut one, still slightly warm, straight away. The breads were not as tall as I would have liked them to, as I suspected as I filled the loaf tins. I'll have to get a proper tin, since I'm also planning some flavoured toast bread baking. The breads themselves looked really good, the crumb speckled with cinnamon, every now and then a chunk of banana or a nut. After tasting a few slices :-)) I have to admit that SOME banana cakes can be good, really good actually. Even Daniela, who almost hates bananas, ate 2 slices attracted by the smell. The loaf I brought at work disappeared quite quickly... I guess that means my colleagues liked it!
when i first went to uk for studies, i used to wonder whether the bananas sold at supermarkets were made from plastic! they were so yellow! hahahaha!
Posted by: Wena | January 30, 2004 at 12:23 PM
This looks great Alberto :) I've never tried banana bread with nuts - I usually soak sultanas in dark rum overnight and fold those in instead.
Now that you've tried banana bread, you should give coconut bread a go. Its awesome!!!
Posted by: Angela | January 31, 2004 at 07:09 PM
Wena: your story reminds me what my friend Alec, from Zimbabwe, told me about "exotic" fruit in Europe. His comment was more or less: "we keep the good stuff and send the rest to you stupid europeans" :-))
Angela, I have a bit more of a dislike for coconut desserts than for banana ones but I'd be prepared to try. Any tips for a good recipe source?
Posted by: Alberto | February 01, 2004 at 04:28 PM