Banana Bread

Banana bread is such a comfort food. I may have already included this recipe years ago on this blog, but it deserves a second go. The recipe comes from a very well used book (see photo below), called Classic Home Dessert's by Richard Sax. This bread is really more a cake, quite sweet but very good. Sax suggests icing it with a frosting, while I prefer to pour a thickish chocolate glaze (made of melted bitter sweet chocolate and warmed heavy cream) over the it, especially when catering. I prefer the clean taste of the ganache over the chocolate frosting muddied with icing sugar. At home we usually just eat it as is, or occasionally, stir into the batter just before baking great chunks of bitter sweet lindt chocolate.

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups cake flour, (I use all purpose flour – it gives the cake/bread a little more structure)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
¾ cup mashed ripe banana (about two)
¼ plus two tablespoons yogurt (I add enough to make a generous one cup measure when the yoghurt is added to the banana)

Preparation

Grease (with butter) and flour a large loaf pan (mine is a 10” by 3” - ish) or full sized bundt pan. Or line 24 muffin cups with liners, or grease and flour them.

Cream the butter till smooth. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.

Meanwhile:
In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir well with a whisk until mixed.
Mash up banana in a 1 cup glass measuring cup, add the yoghurt and stir well to combine.

Add the eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture, blending well and scraping the sides of the bowl before adding the next egg. When all three eggs have been incorporated, add the vanilla, mix well.

Add half the banana/yoghurt and half the flour mixture to the butter, stir to combine. Then add the remaining banana/yoghurt and flour mixture, stir to combine. Spoon into the greased pan, bake at 350 for about 45 to 50 minutes, depending on the shape of the pan you have chosen to bake the bread in. If you are baking muffins, bake for about 15 minutes. The bread/cake is done when you press the top of the highest part of the bread softly and it springs bake to the touch.



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