Showing posts with label Quick Bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quick Bread. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Banana Bread

Yield: 2 8" loaves
Source: Betty Crocker's 40th Anniversary Edition Cookbook

Lately I find myself purchasing bananas 7 and 8 at a time even though I full well know that I'll never get them eaten by the end of the week. It seems I subconsciously want banana bread.

1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans

Place oven rack in lowest position and preheat to 350°. Grease bottoms only of 2 8" loaf pans.

Mix sugar and butter into a paste, add eggs one at a time. Add bananas. (I don't mash them, instead I put the mixer on about 3 and toss chunks of banana into the whirring beater. It's quite fun, I highly recommend it.) Pour in buttermilk and add vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in remaining flour, baking soda, and salt until just combined. Stir in nuts.

Pour batter into pans and bake for about 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each pan to loosen the sides. Remove from pans and allow to completely cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Ginger Molasses Pumpkin Bread

Yield: 2-8" loaves
Source: Food52.com


2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin puree*
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tbs melted butter
1/4 cup veggie oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter milk
1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs turbinado sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°.  Butter and flour two 8" loaf pans (what I used) or one 9" loaf pan (what I don't own).

In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and nutmeg.

In a second bowl whisk together the egg, pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, veggie oil, molasses, and buttermilk until well combined. Stir in fresh ginger and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, be careful not to over mix. Pour batter into prepared pan(s).

Combine the turbinado sugar with the last tsp of cinnamon and sprinkle over to top of the batter.

Bake 30 minutes (two 8" pans), or 55 minutes in one 9" pan, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, remove and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.


*Ok folks, go ahead and take the time to make your own pumpkin puree. It's absolutely worth it. You will never want the junk from the can again, I don't care how much you paid for the organic stuff at Whole Foods. Alton Brown does it here, the hardest thing about the whole process is scraping the seeds and strings out before you roast. Try to make someone who will be on the eating end of this project do the work. It's called delegating.

Roast 2 sugar (or pie) pumpkins at once and you'll end up with about 4 cups of puree. Your mileage will vary of course, based on the size of your pumpkins. I freeze the puree in 1 cup portions. Sugar pumpkins start appearing in mid-to late October in Kansas City so I usually roast 4 of them to make sure I have enough pumpkin puree in the freezer to make pies for Turkey Day and Xmas.

One last note, when I made this I found the bread to be perfectly moist and just the right amount of spicy, but lacking a bit in the sweetness department. Next time I'm upping the sugar to 3/4 cup.