Dress up your banana bread with nuts, spices or chocolate
ONE OF THE BEST ways to serve banana bread is with toasted nuts.
Toasting nuts in the oven makes them taste better. Spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet and heat the nuts in a 350 F oven until you can smell them, which takes about five minutes. Once the nuts cool, chop and stir them into the batter for any cake, cookie, muffin or quick bread. Follow this recipe with your kids.
BANANA BREAD
Makes 10 servings
Gather ingredients
Vegetable oil spray
2 cups all-purpose flour 3⁄4 teaspoon baking soda 1⁄2 tsp salt
3 very ripe bananas (skins should be speckled black)
3⁄4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1⁄4 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Assemble cooking equipment
8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch metal loaf pan
2 bowls (1 medium, 1 large) Whisk
Large fork or potato masher Rubber spatula
Toothpick
Oven mitts
Cooling rack
Cutting board
Chef ’s knife
Start cooking!
Start to finish: 75 minutes, plus cooling time
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 F. Spray bottom and sides of 8 1/2by-4 1/2-inch metal loaf pan with vegetable oil spray.
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Peel bananas and place in large bowl. Use large fork or potato masher to mash bananas until broken down but still chunky.
Add sugar, eggs, melted butter, yogurt and vanilla to bowl with bananas and whisk until combined.
Add flour mixture and use rubber spatula to gently stir until just combined and no dry flour is visible. Do not overmix — batter should look thick and chunky. Use rubber spatula to scrape batter into greased loaf pan and smooth top.
Place loaf pan in oven. Bake until banana bread is golden brown and toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, about 55 minutes.
Use oven mitts to remove banana bread from oven (ask an adult for help). Place loaf pan on cooling rack and let banana bread cool in pan for 15 minutes.
Use oven mitts to carefully turn loaf pan on its side and remove banana bread from pan. Let banana bread cool on cooling rack for at least one hour. Transfer to cutting board, slice and serve.
Per serving: 260 calories (28 per cent from fat); 8 grams fat (5 g saturated); 62 milligrams cholesterol; 228 mg sodium; 43 g carbohydrate; 2 g fibre; 20 g sugar; 4 g protein.
MAKE IT YOUR WAY
Dress up banana bread with nuts, spices, citrus zest or chocolate.
Nutty Banana Bread: Stir 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped, into batter along with flour mixture.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread: Stir 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips into batter along with flour mixture.