Banana Bread

Cookbook Countdown is a monthly cooking/baking event, which I'm co-hosting with Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray.  Everyone is welcome to join us. How does it work? To summarize, you may select a cookbook from your own cookbook collection, to cook or bake from each month. That selected book shall be your cookbook of the month. You may cook any recipes and as many recipes as you want from your selected book of the month. This is a fabulous way of using your cookbooks at least once! For more information on how to join Cookbook Countdown, please click here. 

************************

Cookbook Countdown #2 : Recipe No. 2

from my selected cookbook for this month, Better Homes and Garden : Baking

Recipe No. 2 : Banana Bread

What do you do when you have more than a dozen ripe bananas sitting on your kitchen counter? Make Banana Smoothies, Banana Ice Cream and of course Banana Bread! 

The bananas I used were very sweet, so I have reduced the sugar by half, and the cake is still a little sweet for me. There's some spices used in the bread, but I've only used ground cinnamon. I've omitted the ground nutmeg and could not find my ground ginger spice jar, so I've omitted that too. I've used canola oil and have omitted the walnuts as my daughter is not fond of nuts.

Very easy to make, mix the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mix to combine, then pour into a 9x5-inch loaf pan and bake as directed. It bakes up a lovely deep brown with some cracks on top, as pictured in the book. I baked the bread in the evening, and left it to cool overnight, as advised in the recipe. And I think banana bread always tastes so much better the next day.

The cake is moist, soft and very nice. Love both the flavour and fragrance from the ripe bananas. I would make this recipe again, though I would further reduce the sugar a little bit more. 

Banana Bread
(adapted from "Better Homes and Gardens Baking")
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I omit this)
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (I omit this, cannot find my ground ginger spice jar!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (4-5 medium)
1 cup sugar (I use 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter (I use canola oil)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (I omit this)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan, or two 7-1/2x3-1/2x2-inch pans.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and ginger. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, bananas, sugar, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in walnuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly.
4. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes for 9x5x3-inch pan or 40 to 45 minutes for 7-1/2x3-1/2x2-inch pans or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. If necessary to prevent overbrowning, cover loosely with foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.
5. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

my notes : I use only 1/2 cup sugar and it is already sweet enough! If you prefer much less sweeter, especially if the bananas are very sweet, you can reduce another 2-3 tablespoons from that 1/2 cup. I used 4 bananas. For the spices I use only ground cinnamon and have omitted the walnuts. For the oil, preferably use flavourless cooking oil like canola.

"I'm linking this post with Cookbook Countdown hosted by 

Kitchen Flavours and Emily's Cooking (Makan2) Foray".

An InLinkz Link-up