Bake-fast Breakfast : Banana Bread

My uncle has always loved banana bread, in fact he was the one who made me had my first bite of banana bread in my life. I was very little and was not into food at all and I looked like a malnutrition girl.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I always go there to look for new recipes or do my "Apple Search". I have not been keeping a good record of my apple experiments but I will make it happen.

To make this banana bread, you only need around 20 minutes preparation time, including doing the measurements. I find the preparation time on a lot of recipe books, especially pastry books, is extremely misleading. I did the math in my head, and from my experience, you usually just double the "Preparation Time" and it will be more or less the same. Don't feel bad, and never think you are the slowest one or it "should not" take that long. It is normal ;-)

I adjust the recipe every time, intentionally and unintentionally.

Here I listed the ingredients in order so you do not mix the powder and liquid, and no need to clean everything before doing another measurement. I always measure powder first, followed by liquid.

You can see that for some items I follow the US unit and the others I use Metric, because powder is easier to be measured with spoons and cups; for butter and solid ingredients (e.g. chocolate blocks!), just get a bowl and weigh them, super quick.

Banana Bread

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius when you start mixing the powder mix in step 3.

Take a (table)spoonful of brown sugar and a (tea)spoonful of cinnamon and/or mixed spices into a small bowl, mix them.

Grease four 7 x 3 inch loaf pans; dust lightly with cinnamon sugar.
*Note: I always pour some hot water into the loaf pan before I grease it, a) to heat up the pan, b) clean it. When you put the piece of cold butter on it it will melt immediately, how cool!

Ingredients:

1-1/2 Tspn Baking Soda
1/4    Tspn Salt
2-1/4 Cups All-purpose Flour / Plain Flour

1-1/2 Eggs
3 Ripe bananas, mashed (I tried both very ripe bananas and just ripe ones, the former one makes the batter slightly stickier but does not affect the taste.)
One bucket of DairyFarm Sour Cream (The amount was JUST RIGHT!)
1 Tspn Vanilla Extract
1-2 Tspn Cinnamon and/or 1-2 Tspn Mixed Spices (I use way more than I said here just because I like the taste of the spices.)

60g Walnuts (If you want you can chop them into smaller pieces but I prefer big blocks, because you are going to cut the bread into pieces anyways so why bother? :P)
*Nuts play an important role in baking energy cakes/bread, excellent source of protein. Read more from my previous post*

1-1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
85g   Butter / Shortening

How to do it:
1. Mix the powder together and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until the texture becomes fluffy. By that time you should not see any yellowish butter standing out.
3. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon and/or mixed spices.
*TIME TO PREHEAT THE OVEN*
4. Mix in 1.; stir in nuts. Pour the batter into greased pans and put them into the oven.
5. Bake for around 45 minutes, check it regularly after baking for 30 minutes. Because every oven is slightly different when it comes to releasing heat and regulating the circulation, you have to monitor on your own. When you see a cracked surface and starting to turn golden brown, it is time to take it out.

I used 3 different baking containers - Ceramic baking plate, bread loaf pan and silicon cupcake molds

The crack on the surface of bread/cake is a sign of success, not for all the cakes but for this bread.

Cooling on the steam rack

The cinnamon sugar gives a semi-glossy surface

Banana Flower Bombs!!

Super easy and perfect for breakfast, do not eat it every day because it has quite a lot of sugar in it, but it is indeed a perfect start for a day or a little treat in the afternoon as an energy boost working in the office. Enjoy!