Wanna Green Bean

2 May 2008

Banana Bread

I’ve always liked Alton Brown’s tv show Good Eats. What really got me hooked on Alton are his books, especially I’m Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking. I really do love baked goods.

Alton talks about six different kinds of baking in that book, the method used for the banana bread is the “muffin method”. This method you combine the wet items in a bowl, the dry in a separate bowl, then add the wet to the dry.

One of the things Alton does differently is he measures his ingredients by weight not volume, like professional bakers do. I’ve made the bread both ways, by using cups and tablespoons, as well as getting my awesome new scale out and measuring the ingredients by weight, both ways make a similar loaf.

This banana bread is simple and basic. It doesn’t have any frilly flavors like lemon, or poppy seed, and it doesn’t have any other fruits in it. Its just plain ole banana bread, a tasty staple.

I of course made a few minor changes. The first time I made it I didn’t have any oat flour, so I just replaced that with all-purpose flour. Lately I’ve been baking with whole wheat flour, so I’ve replaced the all-purpose flour with that. The whole wheat makes it thicker, and it eats like a meal. The original recipe also calls for nuts, but nuts are expensive, and many people I know can’t eat them for a variety of reasons, so I usually leave them out.

Ingredients:

Wet Works 1

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Overripe bananas	340 g		3 – 4
Sugar	210 g	1 cup

Dry Goods

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Whole Wheat Flour (or all-purpose)	220 g	1 2/3 cup
Oat Flour	35 g	1/3 cup
Baking Soda	6 g	1 tsp
Salt	6 g	1 tsp

Wet Works 2

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Unsalted Butter	113 g	8 tbs	1 stick	melted and cooled
Eggs	100 g		2 large
Almond Extract	6 g	1 tsp

Optional:

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Nuts (walnuts,pecans, or almonds)		1 cup		chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease a loaf pan and line with wax paper.

Peel the bananas.

Mash them. The weight is a little more than what the recipe calls for. This made and OK banana bread, not great. The added banana makes the loaf a little wet when it comes out of the oven, just remember, less bananas means drier bread, more means wetter.

Add 210 grams (or 1 cup) of sugar.

In another bowl melt the butter (this is the butter unmelted).

Two eggs is pretty close to the 100 grams!

Add those to the butter.

Then add the butter/egg mixture (wet works 2) and the almond or vanilla extract to the banana mixture (wet works 1).

Next measure out the “Dry Goods”.

You’ll need 35 grams (1/3 cup) oat flour.

Then 220 grams (1 2/3 cups) of whole wheat or all-purpose flour.

Then 6 grams (1 tsp) each of baking soda and salt.

Add the combined “Wet Works” to the “Dry Goods” and stir until combined.

If you are using the nuts, add them now (I’m not so there aren’t any pictures).

Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake 50 minutes to an hour, or until a thermometer placed into the middle of the loaf registers 210 degrees F (100 degrees C).

Allow to cool on the stovetop for 15 minutes, then remove the loaf and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

Store the bread tightly wrapped for upto a week.

Summary:

Ingredients:

Wet Works 1

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Overripe bananas	340 g		3 – 4
Sugar	210 g	1 cup

Dry Goods

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Whole Wheat Flour (or all-purpose)	220 g	1 2/3 cup
Oat Flour	35 g	1/3 cup
Baking Soda	6 g	1 tsp
Salt	6 g	1 tsp

Wet Works 2

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Unsalted Butter	113 g	8 tbs	1 stick	melted and cooled
Eggs	100 g		2 large
Almond Extract	6 g	1 tsp

Optional:

Ingredient	Weight	Volume	Count	Prep
Nuts (walnuts,pecans, or almonds)		1 cup		chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease a loaf pan and line with wax paper.

Peel the bananas and mash them. The weight is a little more than what the recipe calls for. This made and OK banana bread, not great. The added banana makes the loaf a little wet when it comes out of the oven, just remember, less bananas means drier bread, more means wetter.

Add 210 grams (or 1 cup) of sugar.

In another bowl melt the butter (this is the butter unmelted) and allow it to cool. Add the two eggs and almond or vanilla extract.

Then add the butter/egg mixture (wet works 2) to the banana mixture (wet works 1).

Next measure out the “Dry Goods”.

You’ll need 35 grams (1/3 cup) oat flour, 220 grams (1 2/3 cups) of whole wheat or all-purpose flour and 6 grams (1 tsp) each of baking soda and salt.

Add the combined “Wet Works” to the “Dry Goods” and stir until combined. If you are using the nuts, stir them in now.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake 50 minutes to an hour, or until a thermometer placed into the middle of the loaf registers 210 degrees F (100 degrees C). If you stick a toothpick in the loaf it may come out gooey. Don’t worry this will set-up as it cools, if you wait for it to come out clean, the outside of the loaf will burn. The bread is fine as long as the inside reaches 210 degrees F.

Allow to cool on the stovetop for 15 minutes, then remove the loaf and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

Store the bread tightly wrapped for upto a week.

Tags: baked, breakfast, snacks, vegetarian

May 02, 2008, 11:27:09 AM | Permalink | Subscribe | Stumble It! |