Banana Bread

It was a good thing that Mr. Baking Pixie was out of the house this morning and the cats were my only audience.  You see, Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" was in my head ALL morning.  It wasn't pretty to listen to or watch as I danced around my kitchen.

What was the inspiration for my song and dance?

It's Bananas B-A-N-A-N-A-S....

Sorry.  Back to the regularly scheduled recipe.

This recipe is one that I was taught in pastry school, but it's pretty easy to make your own.

What you will need:
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1/3 cup of light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
3/4 cup of ripe mashed banana
3/4 cup of pastry flour
3/4 cup of cake flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of buttermilk
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans

Like I said earlier, play around with the recipe.  For my batch of bread, I doubled the cinnamon and added chocolate chips to one of the loaves.  If you can't find pastry flour, just use all cake flour.  All-purpose flour will work to but you will have a much heavier denser bread.

The first step is to cut up your banana and smash it.  Set the bowl aside.

Start by creaming your softened butter and your sugars until light and fluffy.  Once that is done, add your egg.

Once the egg is mixed in, add your smashed banana and stir.

Take all of your dry ingredients....

and combine them in one bowl.  Mix the dry ingredients together very well.

Pour the dry ingredients into you banana mixture along with the buttermilk.

Mix just until everything is combined scraping down the bowl when you need to.  Stir in your chopped nuts, chocolate chips (highly recommended if I might add), or anything else you feel goes along with banana.

Pour into your prepared loaf pans.  This recipe made 3 small loaves.

And bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.  Then spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get that darn song out of your head.  Cause I ain't no Hollaback girl.... I ain't no Hollaback girl.

Drats!

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