Banana Bread

In addition to all the yeast breads, including sourdoughs, Peter Reinhart has also provided us with recipes for other types of baked goods. In Crust&Crumb, he has a Banana Bread recipe I tried for the first time yesterday.

Reinhart gives two methods of mixing: one if you use butter as the fat("Creaming method"), the other if you use oil ("Batter method"). I had an attack of self-restraint and used oil. I also cut down the sugar by about 1/3, because most recipes call for more sugar than I like, and cut down the walnuts by 1/3, because I didn't have as much walnuts as I thought I did. Reinhart does not call for toasting the nuts, but I did - 5 minutes at 350F.

Next time, I am going to try using less oil (Canola).

The past and future tweaks aside, this made a very nice quick bread. It is very moist and tastes delicious.

David

I decided to make dinner early for a change and needed to make some bread as well.

I began the bread so that it could rise while I was doing dinner. It began as my usual loaf, but I thought we needed more grains in our diet (seeing as I had been having porridge each morning for breakfast while I was getting used to the cold UK weather and then while the oven was broken and once it was fixed I have been eating bread for breakfast, lunch and snacks......tut tut tut)

Today I had a little triumph.

My oven has been broken for 5 days and finally the oven repair man came to replace the element....yesterday....

So, after testing the oven with lentil Pie and Steak and red wine pie (for the hubby) last night. I was ready to make some bread today.

I had made a poolish, but after a bit of a busy/mixed up day, it had been left out for too long and I decided not to use it. I had made it way too wet as it was anyhoo.

My sweet bread-loving best friend suffered a heart attack last year, and since then I've been searching for and experimenting with lower-fat, healthy versions of his favourite recipes.  This incredibly easy moist, delicious loaf, adapted from Bonnie Stern's Best of HeartSmart Cooking is not only lower in fat, but what fat it contains is mono or polyunsaturated, which boosts HDL (good) cholesterol. 

I have a friend who needs a lot of par baked bread on hand but I have been having difficulty getting the bread out at 90% baked, usually 180 F. My thermometer takes about 20 seconds or longer to show the temperature and with differing temperatures in the kitchens it's all across the scale unfortunately.

So I am looking at a Thermapen, it is expensive (120.00 CAD) but it measures temp in 4 seconds and has a good range too, -50 to +570 F.

Anyone use this item or a similar thermometer with a short temp measurement?

Greetings, all.

I'm new here, and thought that I'd introduce myself by sharing a recipe. It comes from my friend Big Al Brooks, who, I think, got it while he was working at a fancy-pants restaurant called Anthem, outside Phoenix. It's very, very easy, and everyone I know loves it.

Big Al's White Chocolate-Banana Bread Pudding

First, make the banana bread.

Set your oven at 350 F.

Whip four very ripe bananas with a cup and a quarter of sugar. That being done, whip in a third of a pound of soft butter. I have never quite been able to measure a third of a pound accurately, but the recipe hasn't ever suffered for it. Now, whip in two eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Make sure that each ingredient is well-whipped-in before adding the next one. Now, separately, sift together a cup and a half of all-purpose flour, a half teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon and a half of baking soda. Blend the dry ingredients well into the wet ingredients, and then glomp the entire resulting mess into a nine-inch loaf pan, and let 'er rip in your 350 F oven for about an hour. Nota bene: Big Al's recipe calls for one nine-inch loaf pan, but I have always used four mini loaf pans without detriment.

Hello,

I'm trying to create bread sticks for DISPLAY ONLY  - Does anyone know of the recipe to do so?

Thanks!

Carolyn

I have read so many pieces about this bakery or that where they say this oven makes so many batches over a certain period or this bakery holds the record for consecutive batches...

So, having not been trained by a school or a professional baker, how big is a batch? Is it 2, 10, 20 or what? For me 10 loaves in a row at 2 pounds each was a great workout kneading but the time really flies when you are having that much fun!

Happy baking!

I like these Italian rolls. Nice shaped and great in taste!

250 g flour
8 g fresh yeast
5 g salt
20 g lard
1/2 TL honey
~130 g water

How to shape them you find on my blog: http://kochtopf.twoday.net/stories/2958191/

I just needed to know if the 10 Minute Banana Bread recipe or the Better Banana Bread recipe would work ok in high altitudes. If not, is there a good Banana Bread recipe for high altitudes out there?

Thanks,

Julie Miller