Sunday 22 April 2012

Banana Nut Bread



I'm sure you remember the awesome banana bread loaf pan I bought from America. As I had 3 sad looking bananas sitting on the counter, I thought I'd put them to good use by making banana bread. I decided to use the recipe that accompanied the pan with some minor changes. Sadly, the banana bread was very dry and not very "banana-ey" so I won't be making this again in a hurry or at least without making significant changes.  Interestingly enough the people who don't really like bananas quite liked this bread probably because the banana taste was mild and the texture was fairly dry and solid (It's the mushiness of the banana that tends to put people off) Personally I like a really moist banana bread full of banana flavour. I am still in love with the pan so I'm sure you will see it again and again especially since I love baking with bananas :)

As it's B for bananas, I'm sending this to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co-hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes on alternate months. If you haven't made your AlphaBakes entry, there's a few days left to enter (25th April) so get baking and blogging!




 Simple recipe - mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients 

 not quite enough to fill to the top

 but it rose a fair bit which required trimming

 I still love the detail on the pan 

Recipe from NordicWare

330g plain flour
120g sugar (this is the reduced amount I used)
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used 1/2)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I used 1/2)
70g chopped walnuts, toasted - I used chopped mixed nuts 
3-4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup plain yoghurt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
7 tablespoons butter, melted (I used 1/4 cup vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  • Stir in the nuts and set aside. 
  • Ina small bowl, mix the mashed bananas, yoghurt, eggs, butter and vanilla.
  • Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
  • Spoon the batter into the pan and bake for 55-65 minutes (I recommend checking at 45 minutes)
  • Cool for 5 minutes in the pan then turn out to a wire rack to cool completely. 


24 comments:

  1. I still love this tin and I still want one!! I bet the nuts in this give a lovely texture! Have you had many entries this month? :-)

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    1. I love the tin too :) The nuts definitely helped the cake but I still felt it was a bit on the dry side. There's been a flurry of entries recently, haven't counted but don't think it's as many as previous months.

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  2. Sadly, I just don't get on with Banana Bread - will have to give it another go at some point. But you're right to love the pan-it's gorgeous and the detail is fantastic. There's so many other things you could use it as well. I'm sure you'll have loads of fun!

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    1. Banana bread is not to everyone's taste I know. The pan is an absolute beauty, I'm so pleased I bought it :) (I did debate for a while)

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  3. This pan is awesome. I love banana bread. I usually freeze the over-ripe bananas so that I can use them when the whim strikes :D

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    1. The pan is pretty awesome :) Great idea to freeze over-ripe bananas.

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  4. Shame you didn't like the recipe, but the pan is really great!

    It could be used for a coconut cake too.

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    1. I made a tropical cake with the pan which was much tastier. Maybe a coconut and rum cake? :)

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  5. I love the baking tin that you use - very summery and makes me want to go to holiday to the Caribbean (where I'm sure I can get lots of bananas :P) Maybe to make it more moist next time is to add more eggs or butter?)

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    1. Thanks for the tips. I decided to take a chance with the original recipe but at least now I know what to do next time.

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  6. Such a shame that the recipe didnt work out but it looks beautiful! I think if I had that pan I would make banana bread every week!

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    1. Trust me the temptation is there :) I love banana breads anyway so you'll definitely be seeing this pan again and again!

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  7. That's such a cute mould! I'm dying to pipe some icing on it to mark out the trees and bananas!

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    1. Great idea - I think I'll do that next time although it may look worse!

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  8. It's stunning! I love those palm trees but I'd be so fearful of the final turn out. Lovely looking loaf cake x

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    1. Thanks Dom - I really like the shape of the tin.

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  9. I still love this tin too, it brings a smile to my face every time I see it turn out such awesome looking banana bread! Sorry to hear the recipe was a bit dry, that's the worst - the thing I love about banana bread usually is how moist it is!

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    1. That's the great thing about this tin -it will always look good! More excuses to try different recipes :)

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  10. I'm definitely with you on the moist banana bread but what a great pan.

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  11. Hi Baking Addict - I've never seen such a pan before - how adorable! It's too bad you found the recipe not so tasty. I would try exchanging the sugar for apple puree maybe, with a bit of demerara sugar...hopefully that would moisten it up a bit.

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    1. Thanks for the tips. I think I'll use my regular banana bread recipe next time. The pan is definitely adorable - so pleased I bought it!

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