Flour Bakery Famous Banana Bread

After my rather unsuccessful attempt of making a new and better version of banana bread, I convinced myself to try another recipe. This time, I landed on the Flour Bakery's famous Banana bread's recipe. The interesting part of the recipe was that it calls for oil and the use of sour cream --which I had never tried before in my quest to find a perfect banana bread recipe. I only had 3 very ripe bananas, so that's all I used. I also used sour cream instead of cream fraiche.

I was actually pretty satisfied with the recipe. It was very moist, full of flavor, and had just enough sweetness from the banana. It took a little bit longer than an hour to bake (to make sure the center baked completely and wasn't goey), probably about an hour and 20 min. I wonder that maybe Chef Joanne uses her industrial convection oven, which would bake slightly differently than my modest oven at home. And this recipe didn't call out for the size of the pan, so I used the regular 8x4 loaf pan.

Overall though, this was a winner in my book -- and will try again. Red was pretty happy with the flavor and we thought that next time, maybe we'll follow this slightly different version of the same recipe on Runner's World, where it calls for applesauce in replacement of oil, and uses 9x4 pan. Enjoy!!!

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
• 2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, creme fraiche, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Kona Inn Banana Bread

I've have been obsessed with banana bread forever. While I have had some success in the past, I am always in the lookout for a new recipe to try. I ran into this one on from Kona Inn in Hawai-- and I thought this may be a good one to try . One thing that I noticed was that they're using six bananas instead of three or four that most recipes call for. It also uses shortening, instead of regular butter. So I figured that I would try this.

The recipe makes (2) loaves of breads, and I ended up making 1 loaf and using up the rest for mini muffins (it made 20). The bread had an excellent banana flavor, sweet and very moist. I put it in the oven for 1.5 hrs and it was still soft in the middle -- it was actually rather frustrating!

I put the mini muffins in the oven for 20 mins, and they were perfect! I think next time, I would definitely use (2) larger loaf pans and turn down the heat, and leave them in the oven longer.

Kona Inn Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups ripe mashed bananas (about 6 bananas)
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.

Grease and flour (2) 8x4x3-inch loaf pans.

Stir together the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. In another larger bowl, mix together the shortening, sugar, mashed bananas, eggs and walnuts. Add the combined dry ingredients and stir only until the batter is thoroughly blended.

Pour into the prepared pans and bake 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer or straw inserted in the center of the loaves comes out clean, or with only a few moist crumbs. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a rack and let cool completely.