
I realize that this blog is supposed to be Homemade
Everything and I've been focusing mostly on food. I guess I'm on a food kick. That and food is such an important part of our daily lives. I promise to include more variety in the coming months, as the inspiration strikes me.
That said, here is another food post.
I have sampled dozens of banana bread recipes, as there is no better way to utilize a pile of blackened bananas (in my humble opinion). My criteria for the recipe were simple. I wanted a loaf with a rich banana flavor, therefore, the more bananas in the recipe, the better. I also wanted a very moist loaf, which means those healthy recipes were out of the question. Finally, I wanted to be purist - no nuts or dried fruit or chocolate pieces - just plain delicious banana bread. After many attempts to find this, I hit the jackpot with a recipe I found on recipezaar, called
The Best Banana Bread. I think the key to its rich flavor is the use of butter instead of oil.
It is a large recipe that can make one big loaf, or be divided into smaller loaves or muffins. I like to do 2 loaves. I use regular-sized loaf pans and the loaves are only about 2 1/2 inches thick. This is nice because it decreases the baking time (I bake for 4o minutes) and then I usually keep one loaf for us and give one to a friend (hooray for good karma!)
As far as modifications to the recipe I really only have one and a half. The "one" is to omit the chocolate chips, which you are welcome to leave in if you'd like. The "half" is really just me being lazy. I don't keep buttermilk around, so I make my own by mixing 1 tsp lemon juice with enough milk to make 1/2 cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes and the milk will curdle a bit. Voila!
Oh, and make sure you use very ripe bananas - the blacker the better!