Receta Banana Bread
It started fairly innocuously: I found myself with dozens of bananas to quickly ripening in my barn and started the process of baking furiously with them. To work, I brought chocolate banana brownies. All of the sudden my coworkers quickly predicted the situation that lay before them.
My husband, out of town for the week, would not be distracting me.
My frugality, rearing its ugly head, would ensure that all the bananas would be baked with.
The blog, well, the blog promised that whatever banana-y treat appeared, it’d be delicious. Bloggers cook good stuff.
So we started joking about the bananas. And I started posting on Facebook about the bananas and soon enough we thought we’d cleverly coined the term BananaWatch 2013.
We were all excited about the BananaWatch. We were, after all, teachers still at work through our summer vacation. We were all a little bit out of our element: formerly only interacting in the halls and the lunchroom and now sitting for 7 or 8 hours at cafeteria tables, enrolled in a summer graduate course. The bananas became a way we started the day. The desserts offered the sugary boost we needed to get through the afternoon slump. The BananaWatch was in full force and dare I say the lifeblood our of group (okay, that’s exaggerating).
And almost simultaneously, on the 3rd or 4th day of BananaWatch 2013, a few of us realized the hidden meaning behind our nickname. Naively, we were just speaking excitedly about the next day’s treats. To an outsider, however, or someone spending a bit too much time around the humor of teenage boys (which we’re all guilty of since we’re teachers), it was clear that BananaWatch was a cute term walking a dangerous, dangerous line. So, it may no be appropriate to make t-shirts with our summer slogan on them. We’ll have to find another way to remember these days.
This bread just might be all that’s needed. It is indeed one of the best banana bread recipes I’ve made. It is not sticky-moist nor stiffly-dry. It screams bananas! without screaming sugar! The texture is consistent and dependable. It takes a little bit longer to prepare than your average recipe and uses a few more bananas than your grandma’s bread. The recipe originates from Cook’s Illustrated, though, and we all know what a dependable source that is.
Ultimate Banana Bread (Cook’s Illustration, from The Way the Cookie Crumbles)
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 6 large very ripe bananas (about 2¼ pounds), peeled
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup packed (5¼ ounces) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
Instructions
Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
Place 5 bananas in a microwave-safe bowl; cover with plastic wrap and cut several steam vents in the plastic with a paring knife.
Microwave on high power until the bananas are soft and have released liquid, about 5 minutes. Transfer the bananas to a fine-mesh strainer placed over a medium bowl and allow to drain, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes (you should have ½ to ¾ cups liquid).
Transfer the banana liquid to a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until it’s reduced to ¼ cup (about 5 minutes).
Place strained bananas in a medium bowl and stir the reduced liquid into the bananas, mashing with a potato masher until fairly smooth. Whisk in the butter, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined with some streaks of flour remaining. Gently fold in the walnuts, if using.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Slice the remaining banana diagonally into ¼-inch-thick slices. Shingle the banana slices on top of both sides of the loaf, leaving a 1½-inch-wide space down the center to ensure an even rise. Sprinkle the granulated sugar evenly over loaf.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, 55 to 75 minutes (my . Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and continue to cool on a wire rack.