We had three bananas in the kitchen. Not quite as ripe as I like them for making banana bread, but there were three. I feared if I didn’t use them, there would be one missing in short order. So, this morning I made banana bread. I have three or four recipes for banana bread. One uses only bananas and spices and no molasses. Another is almost the same recipe as gingerbread, but with bananas, an extra egg, and a bit more water. This last one falls between those two. It uses the bananas and a lot less molasses. I decided to go with that one because I wanted it to taste a little different.
The whole loaf
This particular cookbook is just my style. Take all the ingredients, put them in a mixing bowl, squash the bananas and beat until reasonably smooth. A wooden spoon is fine, but this time I used the mixer. I still think the wooden spoon is less work. If you have a KitchenAid beater, you can skip squashing the bananas and use the dough hook, but I squash them. Then I add everything else and beat it for a few minutes at low speed. It isn’t a cake and you don’t need to beat a lot of air into it. It is supposed to be fairly solid.
Recipe:
3 ripe bananas, squashed
3 tablespoons molasses or some other syrup. Maple was delicious — sweeter, but not as spicy.
2-1/4 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
big pinch of salt
1 egg
2 – 3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Beat on low for three or four minutes, during which time you can preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. I went for 60 minutes, but I think five minutes less would have been better. I was also on the telephone when the timer dinged, so it stayed in the off but still hot oven for at least a few extra minutes.
I tasted it. Garry tasted it. We declared it good. I also feel obliged to mention that as I wrote out the recipe, I realized I forgot to add the sugar. It’s STILL fine. I suppose between the bananas and the molasses, it is sweet enough, but it does gives me room to ponder how sweet a bread needs to be!
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Categories: #Food, #Photography, #Recipes, baking
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I love using less sugar in my banana bread and molasses sounds heavenly in banana bread.
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Am I misreading this or is there really no flour?
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Not only are you right, but you are the ONLY person who noticed. I fixed it.
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I wondered why nobody else had said anything!
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People don’t see typos anymore. I know I don’t. I’m a miserable proofreader.
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I guess they would have noticed when they tried to make it 🙂
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Exactly!
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I would certainly HOPE so.
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This makes me laugh. One of my first attempts at cooking was a simple cheesecake recipe — graham cracker crust, cream cheese filling, sour cream topping. When I took it out of the oven after the filling baked, I couldn’t figure out why it had raised into a big mound — but was coached to let it cool and finish making it. It later turned out that I had missed the cream cheese in reading the recipe, and made a magnificent graham cracker omelet!
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I remember — before I learned anything at all about cooking — throwing frozen fish into a hot pan and serving it with rice. We called it “fish-heads and rice.” It was THAT good. And before I learned to bake, trust me, there were a lot of throwaway loaves!
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I think we must all have similar stories! I started to bake my first loaf of bread after dinner one night — using an oil stove, yet. Reading the recipe, I thought it should take about 3 hours — by 3 am when it finally came out of the oven, I was too tired to taste it!
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You need a whole day to make real bread. We forget to add in the rising time. Also, I discovered you absolutely can’t raise bread in a really chilly kitchen. It just sits there looking dead.
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Fantastic, Marilyn, another great recipe to try – that looks amazing! Banana bread is one of my favourites, so this is another definite. 🙂
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I try to offer simple recipes because when they get complicated, I either skip half the steps — which might work out (or not) — or give up. This is one I’ve been making for years, but it’s the first time I forgot to use any sugar 🙂
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Oh well, we’ve all done it! 😀 Simple is always good where recipes are concerned, and often the simpler ones are the best.
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I totally agree. Simple is better and usually tastes better, too. Making yeast bread is good in the winter, though. Makes the house smell like heaven.
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Ah yes, it’s one of the best smells in the world! We make all our own bread now, and there’s nothing quite like it. 🙂
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It costs more to make it than buy it, but it’s SO good. And OH that odor of fresh bread.
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It takes a lot of beating. 🙂
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Dough hooks and a very sturdy mixer. I don’t think I could do it by hand anymore. Don’t mind the kneading, but the beating? Nope.
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It’s tricky. I knead by hand, but I do find it’s good for working out all the frustrations! 🙂
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Kneading does it for me. I also like the feel of kneading. There’s something very sensual about it.
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There is, indeed, and I love to see the dough become all smooth and elastic. 🙂
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I remember when I mixed it by hand and I would be covered in sticky dough up to my elbows. THEN the phone would ring.
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Ah yes, I know that situation well! We’ve got a soda bread baking in the oven right now, and at least that doesn’t need kneading. 🙂
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I made quite a few of these during the lockdown.
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We’re still locked down. My problem is saving 3 bananas 🙂
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Mine never tasted as good as they smelled. Yours look great.
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These taste good too. But notice, these are really simple recipes. I stick with simple recipes because I don’t like to work too hard … and it’s pretty hot, so there’s a limit to how much I’m willing to do. Also, I add extra cinnamon, ginger, and cloves and other good smelling stuff. They taste good too 🙂
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Great! Will give it a try. Thanks
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That looks really good — I’ll have to try it!
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It’s easy. Probably remember to add the sugar 🙂
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I hope you enjoyed it! I love banana bread! Yummy! ❤😘
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It was really good, especially since I forgot the sugar. It was supposed to be sweeter, but it tasted fine. Go figure.
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I’ve been looking for another banana bread recipe. I’ll try yours next time..J
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Probably you should add the sugar. And maybe half a cup of hot water.
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Remember when I made it two times ago and mistakenly used powdered sugar instead of flower???Disaster!!!!
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Yeah, well that would give it a pretty odd texture. Sort of like icing maybe? This was heavier than it would have been with sugar and obviously less sweet, but I didn’t realize I’d forgotten the sugar until after I’d eaten a piece and was writing down the recipe. That’s when I realized I’d never taken down the sugar canister. Oops. In this case, it didn’t matter … but it could have.
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Marilyn, the last five times I’ve baked I’ve made some sort of dumb error. The last time, I forgot to pack down the brown sugar and it wasn’t sweet enough. I’ve gotta face the fact that I’m a pretty good cook but a lousy baker. That powdered sugar debacle was like a chemical experiment. It foamed up all over the oven like a volcanic explosion.
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One of the ways I USUALLY avoid mistakes is to take out all the things that go into the recipe and line them up on the counter. Except i forgot the sugar. Don’t give up. Try SIMPLER recipes.
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I looks really tasty, and I can imagine it was great even without the sugar!
🍌 😋 🍞
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The bananas were sweet and so was the molasses. But it puffs up better with the sugar added and I think it could have used half a cup of hot water. The mixture was a little dense. But it did really taste good and we finished it off in less than 24 hours.
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