Written by adam on Jul 3, 2006
Banana Pecan Bread
Publisher's Note: Everyone please welcome TheWife to the stage. This is her very first entry on Men in Aprons, and hopefully not the last. She's actually been doing some proofreading and editing on the site for a while now. But last week, she finally decided to whip up a recipe and post it herself. Enjoy!
Mmmmm . . . smell that? That's the smell of a loaf of banana bread baking in my oven. This is one of the Top Ten Recipes requested by the resident Man in Apron. It's inspired by the basic recipe in the Betty. You should see the page of my copy. It has been used so many times that it has long since fallen out of the actual cookbook and is covered in egg whites that dried on the page. Which brings me to my first objective: Honey? Pookie? Would you please buy me a new Betty for our anniversary?
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 Cup sugar
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 4 ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 Cup plain yogurt (or buttermilk)
- 1 Tsp Mexican vanilla
- 2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tsp baking soda
- 1 Tsp salt
- 1 Cup pecans, either pieces or halves
Before you mix, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Move the rack in the oven to the bottom so that the top of the loaf will be in the center of the oven. Spray the bottom only of a 9X5X3 loaf pan with cooking spray.
(It's important to only spray the bottom and NOT the sides. If you spray the sides, the batter rises up and forms a burnt, crusty ridge around the outside. Definitely not pretty. You want a pretty, domed top.)
Prepare the Wet Team:
Cream together the sugar and butter until fluffy. Stir in eggs. Stir in bananas, yogurt, and vanilla.
Prepare the Dry Team:
Mix soda and salt into flour. Gently stir the Dry Team into the Wet Team just until moistened. (Overmixing will cause ugly baking.) Then stir in pecans. Pour into the pan. Bake about 1 1/4 hours.
You know it's done when a cake tester or toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for approximately 5-10 minutes. The take a knife and gently run it along the inside of the sides of the pan to loosen the bread. Remove from oan and let it cool on the wire rack. Now, ideally, you should let the bread cool completely before slicing, so that you get pretty slices, blah, blah, blah. But it's like brownies. Fresh, warm brownies are hard to resist. You don't care if that brownie sliced prettily. You just want to cram it into your mouth!
Responses to "Banana Pecan Bread" ...
Ben
Recommendation:
Don't crack your eggs into the other ingredients!
Why not? I once cracked a slightly fertilized egg directly into my mix. I almost puked and decided to dump the entire batch, considering it unsalvagable. Since then, I've always cracked my eggs into a separate bowl, beat them up, and placed them with the rest of the ingredients. Unless you just need the protein, crack separately.
TheWife
True, true . . . Another helpful thing is to get a saucer and crack the eggs on the flat part in the center. Egg shell pieces are less likely to break off and into your food as the membrane holds all the little pieces of shell together. Plus, it makes cleanup easier - no egg whites on the counter!
adam
Sounds like the pot is teaching the kettle about egg whites on the counter.
TheWife
Why do you think I have switched to the saucer technique, doofus? Hmmm???
Love banana bread - I love how it makes my whole house smell! I've never tried the Betty recipe for it but sounds like I should. A recipe that's been used so many times that it's fallen out of the book is a pretty good endorsement ;).
Since winter of 2004, I have been exploring the world of cooking and helping out my fellow men in their quests to better themselves in the kitchen. My name is Adam Byrd, you can learn more about me and my mission on my