Cinnamon Crunch Banana Bread

 

Just the name alone of this bread makes me happy.  Cinnamon. Crunch. Banana. Hmmmm. Happiness.

The other day I discovered a container of mashed bananas in the freezer and while there are probably thousands of banana bread recipes on the "Google machine," I felt the need for something a little more interesting. This recipe from the ever-reliable NYT Cooking site fit the bill; the only thing I changed was to add chopped walnuts to the batter and the topping (I felt it needed more crunch). 

I'm sure you have your own library of ready-to-go banana bread recipes, but I must enthusiastically recommend this one. The ratio of bananas/cinnamon/crunch is perfect. The bread is super-moist and packed with deliciousness. It is a little on the sweet side due to the double sugars in the topping (I don't mind that, but you can probably reduce the sugar a bit if it's a concern for you). A bonus is that you don't need an electric mixer - just two mixing bowls, a whisk, a couple of spatulas, and a 9x5 loaf pan. My cake sank a bit on the top after baking, but other than that, it is fabulous.

So go forth and bake this bread! Or, as they say on the Great British Baking Show: Ready, Set, BAKE!

Cinnamon Crunch Banana Bread (NYT)

Ingredients for the batter:

Unsalted butter, for greasing

1-1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 C granulated sugar

1 t ground cinnamon

1 t baking soda

1/2 t kosher salt

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/4 C honey

1 C mashed ripe bananas (2-3 medium bananas)

1/2 C chopped walnuts (my addition)

1/4 C warm water

Ingredients for the topping:

1/4 C brown sugar, preferably light brown or Demerara (I used light brown)

2 TB granulated sugar

1 t ground cinnamon

1/4 C chopped walnuts

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x5" loaf pan and line it with parchment or wax paper, leaving enough paper hanging over the sides to lift the cake out after baking. (This will prevent the topping from breaking when removing the bread from the pan.)

2. Prepare batter: in a medium bowl, combine flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, using a sturdy whisk, beat together oil, eggs, and honey until smooth. Stir in bananas and warm water. Add dry ingredients to egg-oil mixture and stir to blend; stir in nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3. Make topping: in small bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and nuts, using your fingers to break up any lumps. Sprinkle evenly over batter.

4. Bake until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour, checking after 50 minutes. If topping shows signs of burning, reduce heat to 325 degrees.

5. Remove to a rack and let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Use edges of paper to lift cake up and out. Place on a rack (leave the paper on) and let cool before slicing and serving.

Mango-Coconut-Banana Bread

What’s that saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?” Well, how about when life gives you mangoes? Lots and lots of mangoes. 

We are lucky to live in an area with plentiful mango trees (in addition to passionfruit, guava, beach grapes, and other assorted fruits), and they have literally been falling out of the trees. Every morning when I walk with friends, we return home with armfuls of ripe, beautiful mangoes. Then I have to figure out what to do with our haul. Of course you can just eat the mangoes out-of-hand, but I generally like to add them to yogurt or a smoothie, or a baked good, which is what I have done today.

From the folks over at food52.com, I found this gem. It sounded great as is, but since I’m living in the tropics I decided to add some flaked coconut, and I’m glad I did. It gives the bread a terrific texture, which it otherwise would not have had. If you’re coconut-adverse, just omit it. This bread is moist and flavorful, although I think next time I will up the mango ante to a whole mango instead of half, as it could have used a bit more mango flavor. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t have enough mangoes!

In addition, I tried a trick I’d read about awhile ago, where you sprinkle sugar over the greased pan instead of flouring it. It gives the bread just a hint more sweetness and a little bit of crunch.

Let me know if you make this recipe and what you thought! Have a great day!

Mango-Coconut-Banana Bread (adapted from food52.com)

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 C sugar (plus a teaspoon for the pan)

1/2 C unsalted butter, room temp

2 large eggs

2 ripe bananas

1/2 ripe mango, cubed

1 TB milk

1 t ground cinnamon

2 C flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

3/4 t vanilla

1/2 C flaked sweetened coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease or line a 9x5" loaf pan, then sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over the bottom and sides of pan.
2. Cream the sugar and butter in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. In a small bowl, mash bananas with fork.
5. Mix in the milk, cinnamon, and vanilla until combined.
6. Then gently mix in the mango, set aside.
7. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
8. Add banana mixture to creamed mixture and stir until combined.
9. Finally, add in the dry ingredients and the coconut.
10. Pour batter into loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake approximately 65-75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
11. Let cool on rack before removing from baking dish.

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger

Greetings!

I hope you are all healthy and doing well.

Like everyone else on the planet, we’ve been cooking and baking more than usual. Finding all-purpose flour during the early days of the pandemic was nearly impossible (forget about finding bread flour here in Puerto Rico). Now it seems the supply lines have been fortified and I can get all the AP flour I want. So this week, with quickly ripening bananas on my counter I set out to bake banana bread. But I wanted something a little different, and I found it in Molly Wizenberg’s (a terrific food writer) recipe from a few years back. She adds finely chopped crystallized ginger and that takes this banana bread from really good to WOW! It adds a dimension of spicy-sweetness and moisture you would otherwise not get. If you can’t get crystallized ginger, you could sub in ground ginger (use an 1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger for every tablespoon of crystallized ginger; you may need to add sugar, to taste, to compensate), but you won’t get that delicious gingery chewiness. 

You’ll notice the recipe calls for whole-milk yogurt (not low or nonfat); I could not find it anywhere so I used nonfat yogurt. Full fat yogurt will probably give you a more moist bread, but I did not find this version to be lacking in moistness (or anything) at all.

Try this recipe, I think you’ll really enjoy it!

Be well, stay healthy, stay safe.

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger (Molly Wizenberg)

Makes 1 9x5” loaf or 1 8” round cake

Ingredients:

6 TB unsalted butter

2 C all-purpose flour

3/4 C sugar

3/4 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

3/4 C semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 C finely chopped crystallized ginger

2 large eggs

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 C well-stirred whole-milk plain yogurt (not low or nonfat)

1 t vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Set a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 350F. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan or an 8-inch round cake pan with cooking spray or butter.

2. Melt the butter on the stove or in a microwave and set aside to cool slightly.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips and crystallized ginger and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well. Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides as needed, until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter with be thick and somewhat lumpy, just make sure all the flour has been incorporated. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.

5. Bake into the loaf is a deep shade of golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 mins to an hour. If the loaf seems to be browning too quickly, tent with foil.

6. Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Then tip out onto the rack, and let it cool completely before slicing. The loaf freezes well wrapped in plastic wrap and again in foil to protect from freezer burn.

Recipe-in-a-Flash: Chocolate-Hazelnut-Banana Bread

Chocolate + bananas + nuts are always a good combination. When that chocolate-nut pairing is Nutella, well, you've just ramped up the whole banana bread game!

Just look at all that swirly Nutella goodness!

pre-baking

just out of the oven

This recipe, from NYT/Cooking, is easy and delicious. My one change would be to add MORE Nutella (no such thing as too much Nutella, right?). I didn't feel the hazelnut flavor was big enough. I might also add some actual nuts for crunch and texture. 

With those additions, this recipe is a keeper! Add it to your banana bread file and let me know what you think. Happy baking!

Ingredients

1/2 C unsalted butter (1 stick) plus more for greasing the pan

2 C all-purpose flour plus more for flouring the pan

1 t baking soda

3/4 t Kosher salt

1-1/2 C mashed bananas, from about 3 medium bananas

2/3 C granulated sugar

1/4 C plain Greek yogurt

2 eggs

1 t vanilla extract

1/3 C chocolate-hazelnut spread, like Nutella

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter & flour a 9x5x3" loaf pan.
2. Stir the flour, baking soda, & salt together in a bowl.
3. Brown butter: melt butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. Book butter, occasionally scraping the bottom & sides of the pan with a rubber spatula until it turns a deep golden brown and smells nutty. Don't walk away from the pan during this process. The butter will go from browned and nutty to acrid and burnt in moments. Transfer butter to a large heat-safe mixing bowl & let it cool slightly.
4. When the butter has cooled a bit, add the mashed bananas, sugar, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla extract. Stir until well combined, then add the flour mixture & stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Pour half the batter into prepared pan & spread it evenly with a knife or offset spatula. Spoon half the chocolate-hazelnut spread in several dollops over the top & use a toothpick or skewer to swirl it into the batter. Spoon & spread the remaining batter over the top followed by dollops of the remaining spread. Swirl in the spread, then bake the bread for 55-60 minutes, or until golden brown & a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Recipe from NYT/Cooking

RECIPEinaFLASH: Gluten-free Banana Bread

Have a few over-ripe bananas in your fruit bowl? Are you (or a friend or loved one) on a gluten-free diet? I've got your perfect Sunday afternoon recipe right here! Courtesy of The Kittchen, I whipped this up in no time last weekend.

Bursting with (to borrow a wine term) "fruit-forward" banana flavor, I loved the texture it gets from almond meal and chopped walnuts.

I made a couple of tweaks to the original recipe. Rather than traditional brown sugar, I used Whey-Low's Gold Brown Sugar Replacement, and when serving it, I dusted the top with their powdered sugar replacement to make this an "almost" totally guilt-free dessert. Scatter a few sweet berries on the plate for good measure, and voila!

Have a great Sunday!

Print original recipe here.

Food 52 "Bestest" Banana Bread

Happy Weekend, Cooks Tour readers! Hope all is well in your part of the world. Here in New Jersey, we have been in a malaise of continuous cold and rain and gray for about two weeks. But the local weather people tell me that we are about to turn the corner - sun and warmer temps on the way tomorrow!

In honor of a good day to stay in and bake something warm and cozy, I chose something from the terrific Baking book from the wonderful writers and bloggers over at Food 52. 

I’ve baked (and written about) banana breads before here and here. And I was a little late in purchasing this book but I finally got around to it and spent a recent lazy afternoon paging through one great recipe after another. So today when I realized that two bananas were past their prime, I immediately went to this book for a recipe. I threw in a handful of toasted, chopped walnuts to add some crunch (good move!), and slathered some butter on it this morning to enjoy with my coffee. I think cream cheese would also be a delicious option! And maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon and sea salt...just sayin'

Are you looking for an easy (I mean, really, this could not be any easier) and delicious banana bread recipe? This is for you, my friends. 

Happy #SaturdayBaking!

Print recipe here.

RECIPEinaFLASH: Black-and-White Banana Loaf

I know, I know - it's Thanksgiving week and this should be a pumpkin recipe. But there are a million pumpkin recipes floating around this month and I thought you might like a small diversion. I love pumpkin, but maybe you are one of those people who don't. Or maybe you're just pumpkin'd-out, what with a pumpkin recipe everywhere you look. 

With that in mind, I bring you an absolutely delicious banana loaf. Not just any banana loaf. This is a Dorie Greenspan (read my interview with Dorie from earlier this year) recipe so you know it is going to be luscious. It's from her "Baking From My Home to Yours" book, and with bananas, chocolate, and rum in the mix, really, how could you go wrong? I made this a couple of weeks ago when we were having friends over for dinner. It's wonderful on its own with a shower of confectioners' sugar, but to dress it up a bit, I added some freshly whipped cream on the side. Fabulous!

We are off to Vermont for a cozy New England Thanksgiving at The Inn at Weathersfield.

Inn at Weathersfield, November 2014

Make no mistake, I'll be having the pumpkin pie for dessert! :-) 

Here's hoping you have a happy holiday!

Black-and-White Banana Loaf
Dorie Greenspan

1-1/3 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
1-1/2 ripe bananas, peeled
squirt of fresh lemon juice
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 TB dark rum
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 stick plus 2 TB (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temp
2/3 C (packed) light brown sugar
1/3 C sugar
4 large eggs
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/2 C whole milk

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8-1/2x4-1/2x2-1/2" loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with the lemon juice and zest, then stir in the rum.

Melt the chocolate and 2 TB of the butter together in a microwave oven or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the remaining stick (8 TB) of butter at medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for another 2-3 minutes, until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. The batter will look curdled, and it will continue to look curdled as you add ingredients. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour mixture, mixing only until it is just incorporated. With the mixer running, pour in the milk, and when it is blended, add the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl and mix in the mashed bananas. The batter will look even lumpier.

Pour a little less than half the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir to blend. Drop alternating spoonfuls of both batters into the prepared pan, then, using a table knife, swirl the batters together, taking care not to overdo it.

Bake for 1 hour and 20-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check after 30 minutes and if the cake starts to brown too much, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unfolding, then cool the cake to room temp right side up on the rack.

Storing: wrapped in plastic wrap, the cake will keep for 4-5 days at room temp; wrapped airtight, it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer.

Print recipe