I've professed my love for banana bread earlier. The way I view Banana Bread (or smoothies, for that matter) is how an artist might look at her blank canvas. The possibilities. The varied, various possibilities.
I've put dates and nuts in banana bread before. I've also been known to put espresso and chocolate chips in the batter. Coconut and raisins? Done and done.
However, as an ode to summer, I needed something fruity and fuss-free. Something like a smoothie. In a bread. Fusion conFusion and all that.
Cherries and fresh mango in banana bread!`Ooooh, yes.
I have a recipe for banana bread and banana muffins that I love. However, Smitten Kitchen's recipes are something I trust wholeheartedly, so I thought I'd give this a try. I made this late at night, cut myself a slice for breakfast and ran for work. Got through work knowing that I'd come back to air-conditioning and a loaf of banana-bread-minus-one-slice. That happened. Not.
My brother even had the audacity to tell me that I should've skipped the mango as it made the bread a teeny bit "soggy" after a while. It didn't have a "bite" to it, he said, in a snooty voice. A food blog in the family and everybody turns into frou-frou self-professed food connoisseurs. Not that I didn't cut him down to size by asking in front of company why he had to go eat it all then.
Skip the mango if you're not a fan, but I liked the random bits of soggy-sweetness in the bread. Maybe mango puree in the batter, subbing out some of the bananas would have been a better option. To-do list it goes on to, then!
Until then. Follow the recipe verbatim and have a delicious, delicious slice of banana brake (bread+cake. Lameness). Use organic bananas, fresh cherries and sweet, non-carbide-ripened mangoes. You'll keep wondering if you made it.
Cherry-mango Banana-Smoothie Bread:
Ingredients:
4 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar.
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoona vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup cherries, pitted and halved.
1/2 cup mangoes, cut into tiny dice.
Method:
Preheat an oven to 200 degrees celcius or 350 degrees Farenheit.
Mush the bananas and the melted butter in a big mixing bowl.
With a wooden spoon or a whisk, beat in the sugar, egg, vanilla and spices.
Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the batter. Mix it in.
Fold in the flour until combined, DO NOT OVERMIX.
Pour it out onto a greased loaf pan.
Slice and eat hot-hot. It'll be OK at room temperature for the rest of the day, probably 3 days when wrapped in plastic and kept in the fridge, and longer when wrapped in foil and frozen.
Not that I ever got to find out, if you've read my rambling post.
I've put dates and nuts in banana bread before. I've also been known to put espresso and chocolate chips in the batter. Coconut and raisins? Done and done.
However, as an ode to summer, I needed something fruity and fuss-free. Something like a smoothie. In a bread. Fusion conFusion and all that.
Cherries and fresh mango in banana bread!`Ooooh, yes.
I have a recipe for banana bread and banana muffins that I love. However, Smitten Kitchen's recipes are something I trust wholeheartedly, so I thought I'd give this a try. I made this late at night, cut myself a slice for breakfast and ran for work. Got through work knowing that I'd come back to air-conditioning and a loaf of banana-bread-minus-one-slice. That happened. Not.
My brother even had the audacity to tell me that I should've skipped the mango as it made the bread a teeny bit "soggy" after a while. It didn't have a "bite" to it, he said, in a snooty voice. A food blog in the family and everybody turns into frou-frou self-professed food connoisseurs. Not that I didn't cut him down to size by asking in front of company why he had to go eat it all then.
Skip the mango if you're not a fan, but I liked the random bits of soggy-sweetness in the bread. Maybe mango puree in the batter, subbing out some of the bananas would have been a better option. To-do list it goes on to, then!
Until then. Follow the recipe verbatim and have a delicious, delicious slice of banana brake (bread+cake. Lameness). Use organic bananas, fresh cherries and sweet, non-carbide-ripened mangoes. You'll keep wondering if you made it.
Cherry-mango Banana-Smoothie Bread:
Ingredients:
4 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar.
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoona vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup cherries, pitted and halved.
1/2 cup mangoes, cut into tiny dice.
Method:
Preheat an oven to 200 degrees celcius or 350 degrees Farenheit.
Mush the bananas and the melted butter in a big mixing bowl.
With a wooden spoon or a whisk, beat in the sugar, egg, vanilla and spices.
Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the batter. Mix it in.
Fold in the flour until combined, DO NOT OVERMIX.
Fold in the fruit.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out relatively dry. Don't overcook, it'll be too dry.
 |
| Brown, caramelly baked goodness! |
Cool for 10 minutes. Flip it out onto a wire rack and let it cool.
Slice and eat hot-hot. It'll be OK at room temperature for the rest of the day, probably 3 days when wrapped in plastic and kept in the fridge, and longer when wrapped in foil and frozen.
Not that I ever got to find out, if you've read my rambling post.
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