Banana Bread

It has been a very long time since I last posted here, but with the Covid-19 going on and everyone social distancing, now is a good time to break the silence and share a recipe.

Now, I do not claim to have come up with this recipe, but I have modified it a bit over the years till it's something that I like. 

The original recipe calls for mashing some bananas so you still have some texture in the bread.  I am not a fan of that because you end up with these interesting bits of banana that aren't quite banana, but aren't much of anything else.  So I skip that step.  I suppose if you wanted that sort of look you could fold in some banana chips or freeze dried banana, but I feel that the chocolate chips and nuts do enough. 

Another thing that I don't do with this recipe - which I usually do for baking - is measure by weight.  This is the old scoop and sift method which works well enough.  The flour is the only measure that can throw you, so I recommend you fluff the flour up so it's not packed in, then scoop and sweep.  And always, always, always sift your dry ingredients. 

Banana bread

4 C flour
2 C sugar
Pinch kosher salt
Cinnamon (dash)
Ground Clove (less than a dash)
Nutmeg (dash)
4 eggs (room temp or warmed)
3 sticks unsalted butter (melted)
3 TSP baking soda
6 over ripe bananas
Walnuts (chopped)
Dark Chocolate Chips
Powdered Sugar
2 TSP Vanilla (I usually go 4 because I like vanilla)

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter three bread pans and dust with powdered sugar.
-Sift flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Cream bananas and sugar till smooth.
-Drizzle butter into the banana cream.
- Add eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg.
- Add dry to the wet and mix gently.  You can sift the dry into the wet if you'd like.
- Dust chocolate and nuts with a tiny bit of flour.
- Fold in chocolate and nuts.
- Pour batter into the bread pans.
- Bake for 40' then rotate 180 and back for 20-35 minutes longer.

Total bake time will depend on your oven.  I begin checking the center of each pan 20' after rotating.  Most recipes will tell you to pull once a knife or toothpick comes out clean, but I always pull when there is a tiny bit of wetness left at the tip.  The reason for this is because the bread and pan is hot and will continue to cook as it cools.  I will sometimes kill the heat after 20 minutes and allow the bread to gently coast to the finish.