Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Super Delicious Mistake

So today was a rather uneventful day. I attempted to make banana bread. I doubled the recipe, in hopes of bringing some bread to work tomorrow. The first loaf did not rise at all, notifying me that I had written down the recipe incorrectly and that I had omitted the baking soda. Terrible move on my part. So for the second loaf I added the necessary soda, and hoped it would bake correctly. Sadly this one did the opposite, it nearly exploded. Lovely, just lovely.Brian decided he'd eat it anyway, I tried the first loaf and realized it sucked majorly. It was so sweet I think I got diabetes from my first and only bite. I had added extra vanilla and a teaspoon of cinnamon to give it a little snap- which worked, had it baked correctly.
I LOVE this recipe and usually it works fantastic, I've made it about 100 times- and it's only screwed up twice, this time, and when I attempted to bake it for Valentine's Day. Usually the bread is super soft and super banana filled. But this time not so much. If you all would like to try it out, the recipe is below, I know it might be weird for you to add sour cream to stuff but it's actually in a lot of cakes/breads. So don't be scared, you can't taste it. It's only to make the bread moist.

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter, softened
* 1 1/4 cups Granulated Sugar
* 2 Eggs
* 1 tsp. Baking Soda
* 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
* 4 tbsp. Sour Cream
* 1 tsp. Cinnamon
* 1 1/2 cups Flour, all-purpose (white)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. You should probably either grease or butter/flour a 9" x 5" bread/loaf pan. Mix the butter and sugar until fluffy (It helps if you microwave the butter for about 10-15 seconds, until soft- but NOT runny!) Add sour cream, the baking soda, vanilla, flour and mix.
Then you need to add the bananas, I find it easier to put the bananas in a separate bowl and mash them up really well with a fork. This makes it easier to mix it into the batter. After adding the bananas mix it well and pour into the greased loaf pan.
The recipe originally said to bake it for 50 minutes. I have found mine always takes MUCH longer than that. What I do is set the oven for 50 minutes, and let it bake through that. Then stick a toothpick/knife into the CENTER of the bread and about 90% of the time it comes out doughy. I then keep cooking the bread at 10 minute intervals until the knife comes out clean. Which signifies the bread is done!
Make sure when you get it out of the pan to let it cool at least 30 minutes before attempting to remove it. I have found if you immediately flip the bread out of the pan it tends to ruin the top of the bread because it gets smashed in because it's still so hot. Often it still is a bit sticky so even if you greased the pan it'll tear the bottom of the bread apart, which is never as appealing. So just wait to get it out of the pan.
TIP: I've found if you wrap the bread tightly in plastic wrap and leave it overnight it "locks" in moisture and makes the bread super soft/moist.

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