from Tiffany Ludwig
Banana Bread is my go to treat when company pays a surprise visit, as a simple hostess gift or when we just need something delicious to snack on. I have a number of recipes; ones I can create in my sleep and ones that are so intricate that I never seem to have the ingredients on hand.
Recently we held a bake-off in my house. My husband swears by his mom’s recipe so we compared her recipe to a new one I’ve been working on to an old standard from a tried-and-true cook book.
And here is the one that won across the board. We all favored it, even my mother-in-law! It’s nice because the ingredients are simple, ones that you probably have around the house. It’s easy to omit anything you don’t have or substitute with ingredients you prefer. I’ve included those variations below.
Let me know which combination you try and how it turns out. And be on the lookout for a Zucchini Bread recipe come harvest time this summer!
Ingredients
2 cups white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup butter, softened (see tip below)
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp orange blossom water (optional)
1/3 cup strong coffee or espresso (can substitute with milk)
2-3 mashed ripe bananas (see banana tips below)
¾ cup chocolate chips (can omit or substitute nuts)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 F
1. In a medium bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. I use white whole wheat flour for a little extra nutrition without having bread that seems “whole wheat-y”. Set this aside.
2. In a large bowl cream the softened butter until smooth and light. If you haven’t pre-softened your butter, here’s my trick: slice it into ½” slices and place in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it for 8 second increments. Slicing it before microwaving will soften the butter without melting it. Every microwave’s power settings are different so experiment to see what time works best for you.
3. Add the sugar and continue to mix it until it’s creamy.
4. Add the beaten egg, vanilla, orange blossom water, and espresso and mix until lemon colored and fluffy. You can use an electric mixer, but I don’t, especially for the following steps, your bread will turn out better if you mix it by hand with a wooden spoon.
5. Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just combined and add the mashed bananas and chocolate chips.
6. Transfer this to a greased 9 inch loaf pan. Smooth it to fit. Bake 50 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it sit for 10 minutes in the pan before you transfer it to a wire rack to cool.
You can also bake this as muffins; just reduce the cooking time to around 25 minutes. It will make about 10 muffins, depending on how tall you want them to be.
A note about bananas. The perfect banana for this recipe is a very very ripe banana. It’s very yellow with a lot of brown spots on it. The more brown there is the sweeter the banana is. If you have ripe bananas on hand (but aren’t ready to bake with them) just peel them, wrap them well and freeze them. Then thaw them before adding them to your mixture.
