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The Best Banana Bread

A quick break from Road Warriors to bring you this timely post:

The Best Banana Bread, otherwise known to me this week as: Hot and Humid Banana Bread.

Because if you are anywhere like Minnesota this August, you, too, have bananas rotting on your countertop.

I am going to share my favorite banana bread recipe, since I have tried many, many, many recipes. Because banana bread is an intensely personal experience, I will tell you what I want out of my banana bread in order of importance:

  1. Moistness
  2. Lightness (as in not heavy)
  3. Sweetness (must be sweet, but not too sweet. Also must not taste like “health food”)

Just so we are clear.

So, if you are looking for whole wheat, hockey puck banana bread, where the butter had been replaced with applesauce, and the all-purpose subbed out for flax seed meal, click the back arrow on your browser now.

This is also not overly fatty banana bread.

But it is also not low fat.

It is happy banana bread.

I share it with you now.

It is from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks: Cook’s Illustrated The Best Recipe. (note the messy stains on the paper.)

I omit the walnuts, but you can do whatever you want.

Here are some Jennie-ism’s:

  • Because I never sift my flour, but also because I feel like a should sift my flour, I have devised a little shortcut. I whisk my flour in the container it is stored, and then I use the whisk to fill the measuring cup, then level it with a knife. Then I just bang the whisk on my leg, wipe it with my hand and put it away.
  • I am *ahem* known to often be missing key ingredients when embarking on a recipe. In today’s recipe, I was lacking plain yogurt. However, I did have vanilla yogurt. I just used the vanilla and cut the vanilla extract down to 3/4 teaspoon. I also cut the sugar by about 3 tablespoons.
  • When I don’t have yogurt, I sub buttermilk
  • And since I rarely have buttermilk, I often use the somewhat tried and true sub of adding 1 tablespoon white vinegar to a cup of milk and letting it sit about 10 minutes. Either of which works fine with this recipe. I know, because I have done it. …several times.
  • I never grease and then flour a pan. I either just use cooking spray and cross my fingers, or I use this can of… I’ve got to go see what the name of it is… Baker’s Joy. It is cooking spray with flour in it. But to be honest, I don’t really notice that big of difference.

Cook’s Illustrated Banana Bread

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cups sugar (can be reduced to 1/2 and still taste fine if you are in to that sort of thing)
  • 3/4 t baking soda
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 3 very ripe bananas
  • 1/4 plain yogurt (or vanilla yogurt or buttermilk)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 6 T butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas well with a fork, then mix in yogurt, eggs, butter and vanilla and mix well with fork.

Switch to a rubber spatula and gently fold dry ingredients into banana mixuture until just combined.

Batter will be think and slightly chunky.

Pour/scrape batter into pan and bake approximately 55 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Don’t overcook! And also be aware that sometimes — just sometimes — there will be a pocket of banana in the batter that will always come out on the toothpick, so be sure to poke around in other areas.

Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove bread to a wire rack.

OMG Meatless Monday Twenty Seven

Refreshing and Filling, No-Cook Summer Salad

I’m totally guessing what number Meatless Monday I am on. I haven’t written in over a week, soccer camp starts in an hour, I only have 32% battery left on my laptop and TIME’S-A-WASTING! I’ve got to get the MEAT of the post before I turn into a pumpkin.

Speaking of pumpkins… Mine are so behind that I am scared I won’t have any for Halloween. Not to mention watermelon in August…

It’s impossible for me to get to the point. You know that, right?

For the record, we have not stopped doing Meatless Mondays, I just am not up to date on them. Due to the hysterical nature of the past four weeks of my life, we have also suffered some repeats. I never know what to do for repeats. Is that cheating? I mean, I never set out to become some “Julie and Julia”  by doing something new every time, but for some reason I feel like repeats are lame. Maybe I’ll just pick one thing out of a meal for a repeat. Oh I don’t KNOW! No wonder I never get my posts written!

For this meal, I actually followed a recipe. Well *almost*. It’s called Tabbouleh with Garbanzos.

But I don’t call it Tabbouleh. Because for those who don’t know what Tabbouleh is, I feel that the name can cause one to flip the page (or click the button) too fast. Or glaze over. Or ignore it. It’s like Falafel. I sort of say, “hmmmm…” and move on. To avoid that fate, I call this recipe:

Bulgur Wheat with Garbanzos.

So there.

Tabbouleh is made with bulgur wheat. And what is bulgur wheat? It takes like yummy, nutty rice. But tabbouleh is also made with lots of chopped parsley, which I never planted this year, therefore my recipe is not really tabbouleh after all. My recipe was adapted from Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s Free Weeknight Kitchen emails that I receive each week. They are always inspirational, whether I cook them or not. Plus, I get to absorb all her knowledge and experience without having to listen to her podcast, which I never seem to have time for anymore.

We’ve had about the most humid and stinky summer that I can remember. But then, I can’t seem to remember anything any more, so that might not be saying much. Suffice to say, turning on the oven or the stove doesn’t sound like a good idea.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that we didn’t have air conditioning for a few weeks, due to that pesky lightning strike. Or did I tell you? I can’t remember… Isn’t this fun?

Never mind. the point is that you don’t need to cook ANYTHING!

Well, wait a minute. You do have to boil 2 cups of water, but you could do that in the microwave if you wanted.

Bulgur Wheat with Garbanzos

  • 2 cups bulgur wheat
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 t salt
  • ground black pepper
  • a few pinches each of cardamom, ground coriander, cumin and cayenne
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced or pressed
  • 1 tomato diced
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
  • 1 small onion, diced (about 1/2 a cup or more)
  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
  • 1/2 cup (or whatever you can find that your husband didn’t weed whip) chopped fresh mint
  • 1/2 cup (or whatever you can find that hasn’t gone to seed) chopped cilantro
  • 6 large leaves of fresh basil. Don’t cut until ready to serve or it will turn black

    Put bulgur wheat in a large bowl and add 2 cups of boiling water and stir. Let stand 30 – 60 minutes. (if there is standing water after that time, drain it before proceding)

    In a small bowl add lemon juice, salt, pepper and garlic. Whisk in the oil to make an emulsion. Add the spices which of course are optional if you don’t have them. Never, I-repeat-never, make a special trip to the store.

    Add the tomato, cucumber, onion, garbanzos, toasted pine nuts, and craisins to the bulgur and stir with a fork. Add the mint and cilantro and drizzle the dressing and stir well. Before serving thinly slice the basil leaves and sprinkle over the top.

    Salad can be served room temperature or cold.

    I swear to God, even my kids liked it. I simply could not believe it. Maybe it was the heat that addled their brains?