Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Speaking of bananas...

Going along with the banana theme, just wanted to share a few photos of Little E wearing a onesie that my sister created...



The banana is not really related to the pugs, but it's a banana on a butt. What could be cuter.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Banana Bread

Who doesn't love a good banana bread?  I guess someone who doesn't like bananas. But besides those people, who doesn't love a good banana bread? Such a comforting food, and so easy to make.

My sister and I both recently made this banana bread from Bon Appetit and it is absolutely delicious. It's probably the high sugar content, but the outside gets super caramelized and brown (or at least, mine did).

Ingredients


1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, bananas and oil until smooth.  Use really ripe bananas--lots of brown spots are good.  Sometimes if I have a bunch of bananas that are too ripe for eating, I freeze them, and then thaw them when I want to use them for baking.



Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until just combined (don't overdo it).  


Pour batter into loaf pan.


Bake until a toothpick/knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  The original recipe says 60-70 minutes, but my oven is funky and it took longer.  Around the 60-minute mark, I loosely covered the bread with foil so that it wouldn't brown too much.

Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge to loosen the bread, and turn pan over to release the bread.  Turn bread right side up on rack and let cool complete.



I couldn't resist taking a bite before shooting a photo.  Here, let me try again.


Doh! Well, it's just that delicious.  Ta-da!