Double the Work, Twice the Enjoyment

A sudden realization hit that there were quite a few things in the kitchen that needed to be cleared / eaten / used up – and cleared / eaten / used up very, very soon, at that. There was a whole bunch of bananas that were already going mushy and that no-one seemed to want to eat. There was a whole tub of yogurt that was reaching “crossover-to-the-other-side” time. Plus, there were still a few banana leaves in the refrigerator which were already starting to turn brown from oxidation.

And the fastest and simplest way to use them all up in one go? Make banana bread.

I like banana bread, as does the family. But only if it is made with just fresh (and real) bananas, and no banana flavorings or essences. We find the taste and aromas of these additives too overpowering and artificial. So, more often than not, the only time the family gets to eat banana bread (or cake) is when I decide to make some. (Yep, in this family, I’m the designated baker and the rest are just eaters!) And I think during the past few weeks, my mum must have been wanting banana bread because she has mentioned banana bread to me (albeit in general terms) at least three times on three separate occasions whenever I have said I was going to do some baking.

So, with all these ingredients needing to be made useful, it was the perfect time to make a banana bread. No, actually two banana breads. There were a lot of bananas to be used up! But instead of simply doing a double portion of one recipe, I decided to try out two different recipes at the same time.

I have accumulated quite a number of banana bread recipes in my recipe folder… recipes that I have come across and that have looked good or interesting enough for me to clip/print and file. Most of them I have never even tested. So this was a good opportunity to give two of them an airing, and compare the differences or similarities in tastes and textures between the two.

Both recipes are for low fat banana bread. (Yes, I’m afraid the family and I are still on a period of healthier eating after an extended period of over-indulgence).

The first is one from epicurious.com, which I found by following a link given by a reader in the comments box of one of the food blogs that I read regularly (I’m forgetting which one exactly at the moment). The second is from cookinglight.com, a website that I have been frequenting fairly regularly of late, and from where I’ve found a few recipes that have worked rather well.

The first recipe is for a plain banana bread, and it uses only 1 tablespoon of oil, with buttermilk (which I substituted with yogurt) helping in the leavening and moistness departments. The second is for a chocolate marble banana bread. And of course, that was the very reason why the recipe caught my eye in the first place! I think bananas and chocolate are a very natural pairing. They have great flavor synergies – one enhancing and complementing the other, and thus in turn, becoming even better in and of themselves. Most of the time, it is pretty hard to go wrong with this combination.

Low-Fat Banana Bread
[adapted from a recipe taken from epicurious.com, which first appeared in Bon Appetit, August 1997]

1¾ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1/3 cup buttermilk *
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

* I didn’t have buttermilk, so I substituted with yogurt mixed with a dash of milk to lighten the consistency slightly, and it worked perfectly well.

I lined the 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inch loaf pan with my remaining banana leaves. I just thought the leaves would impart a lovely aroma to the loaf (banana bread with banana leaves… a natural fit, no?) and be a nice way to prevent the loaf from sticking to the pan, plus it was a good way to use up the excess leaves sitting in the fridge. Granted, it is not the common or regular thing to do with banana bread. But that’s probably because banana bread is a Western creation, and cooking (or baking, in this case) with banana leaves is more an Eastern tradition. But that’s not saying they can’t both come together in my banana bread.

• If not using banana leaves, coat the loaf pan with cooking spray.

• Pre-heat the oven to 160C or 325F.

• Lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift and set aside.

• Break the bananas into chunks, sprinkle with a little sugar (taken from the ¾ cup of sugar listed in the recipe), and mash with a fork. [The sugar helps to prevent the bananas from oxidizing into a dark, rather unappealing, color. That’s why my loaves look lighter in color than are commonly the case. I also like to leave a few small chunks of un-mashed bananas in the mixture, for added textural variety.]

• Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar, on medium-high speed, until thick and light – about 5 minutes.

• Mix in the buttermilk, bananas, oil and vanilla. Beat until blended.

• Fold in the flour mixture until just blended.

• Bake until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean – about one hour. Turn out onto a rack, and let cool.

I have to agree with what almost all the reviewers on epicurious.com said about this recipe– this is a beautifully moist banana bread, and no, you would never guess, from tasting it, that it is low fat. The texture is nicely soft and fluffy, with just the right amount of denseness that is required of a banana bread. The crumb is tender and refined.

I think the only adjustments I will make, if I am to make any, would be to:
• Increase the sugar slightly to 1 cup. (I found the sweetness just a teeny bit too subtle and understated.)
• Increase the amount of bananas slightly to maybe about 1¼ cup. (I think this will accent the banana flavors more, without making the loaf too moist.)

Low-Fat Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread
[adapted from a recipe taken from cookinglight.com, which first appeared in Cooking Light, September 2003]

2 cups plain flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, softened
2 large eggs *
1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1½ cups mashed ripe banana
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

* the original recipe used ½ cup of egg substitute, which I estimated to be equivalent to about 2 and a bit eggs. Since I did not have in my possession anything called “and a bit eggs”, and since I was not inclined to crack an egg and measure out teaspoonsful of it, I simply used 2 large eggs, with no harm done to humans or banana bread.

• Coat an 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

• Preheat oven to 175C or 350F.

• Lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Sift and set aside.

• Break the bananas into chunks, sprinkle with a little sugar (taken from the 1 cup of sugar listed in the recipe), and mash with a fork. Set aside.

• Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave at HIGH for one minute or until almost melted. Stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.

• Using an electric mixer, beat together, on medium speed, the sugar and butter until well blended – about 1 minute.

• Add the eggs and beat until blended.

• Follow with the mashed bananas and yogurt, and again beat until blended.

• In batches, add the flour, and mix at low speed until just moist.

• Measure out 1 cup of the batter, and add it to the melted chocolate, stirring until well combined.

• Spoon the chocolate batter alternately with the plain batter into the loaf pan. Swirl batters together using a knife.

• Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes** or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.

** I baked this loaf together with the previous loaf at the lower temperature of 160C/325F, and it took about 1½ hours for the loaf to cook completely.

This banana bread is incredibly moist, almost too moist. It is very, very flavorful, with a gorgeous chocolatey taste. I love how this loaf tastes – both the banana flavors and the chocolate notes are clear and distinct, and yet meld harmoniously and deliciously together.

One other thing I really like about this bread is the rich, golden brown crust. I’m a huge crust fan when it comes to cakes and bread, and this loaf has a gor-geee-ous crust! And yet, despite the lengthy cooking time, which contributes to the good-looking crust, the crumb of the bread is very soft and refined, and extremely moist.

I think I only have two minor gripes about this recipe. One is that the loaf is a tad too moist. And the second is that working with chocolate chips is less than ideal. They don’t melt well or smoothly, and make the loaf a tad too sweet. So, the next time around, I will want to make the following changes…

• Use either dark chocolate or cocoa powder. The former will melt much better, give a smoother consistency and be less sweet. The latter will also be less sweet, with the added bonus of being low fat as well.

• Use the stove-top to melt the chocolate. I’m not a big fan of using the microwave to melt chocolate, even though I can understand the argument for ease and convenience. But I think it is just as easy to do it on the stove-top – a method that I much prefer, and one which I feel gives better results, although I can be accused of being biased.

• If using chocolate chips, I will not melt them, but instead fold them in whole to create a chocolate chip banana bread, which I think has the potential to be another big hit in the “yummilicious” stakes. Better still, fold shaved dark chocolate into the batter instead of chocolate chips, for a speckled banana bread. Now, won’t that be something?

• Reduce the amount of bananas used to 1¼ cups. I’m thinking this seems to be the ideal amount for any banana bread. The previous recipe, with only 1 cup of bananas needs a little bit more, and this recipe, with 1 ½ cups, has a little too much.

But other than these minor points, this marbled chocolate banana bread was a huge hit with the family.

Marbled Marbling
I also experimented with using a different marbling technique from my previous marbling attempt.

As you can see, the result was a much more diffused effect compared to the previous attempt. Perhaps a little too diffused for my liking. Hmmm. I think I was a little over-zealous with wielding the table knife. Still, it was rather “artistic” I thought , with different effects in each slice of bread…

I’m not sure which I prefer actually. The large chunk of chocolate as in my previous attempt, or this more diffused version. Which do you like? Honestly speaking though, I feel I may just fall on the side of the “big chunk of chocolate” camp. I quite enjoy having that big chunk of chocolatey cake/bread to munch through and savor. From an aesthetics point of view, the diffused pattern probably works better, but even then, I still need more experimenting to get it right.

Bonus Tip
Here’s a great baking tip I would like to share with you. After my previous post on the marble cake, Reid very kindly offered me a simple, but very useful and effective solution to the cracks and fissures that I was getting on the cakes which were baked in loaf pans. He suggested wrapping the outside of the cake pan with a damp tea towel before putting the cake into the oven. I tried it out on one of the banana breads, and these were the results…

Without the damp tea towel.

With the damp tea towel.

Amazing, huh? The marbled banana bread, which had the damp towel-wrapped pan, had a beautifully even, flat and smooth surface, while the plain banana bread came out of the oven with a wide-mouth grin that stretched down its center.

So simple, and yet so effective. What a great tip! Thanks a bunch, Reid!

Which is the fairer of the two?
So, after all that, how do the two banana bread recipes compare?

The family was split into the “I like my banana bread plain” camp and the “I like anything with chocolate in it” camp. But all agreed that both versions were very good in terms of taste, flavors and aromas, and in terms of the moistness and tenderness of the crumb. All also agreed that the great part was that the loaves were healthy without tasting healthy (you know what I mean).

I think both recipes are very good in of themselves. And both will be better still with the little adjustments that I have noted above.

I also think both are very versatile – the plain banana bread recipe can very easily be made into a marbled version, and the marbled recipe can also be made into a plain loaf. Both can be further varied by adding nuts or dried fruit. They can be made even healthier by substituting some of the flour with wheatgerm or oatbran.

These banana breads are great alternatives to bread for breakfast or just as an afternoon snack. And these two recipes are simple, quick and easy (definitely quicker and easier than making bread!), and are great fall-backs for whenever we want tasty but healthy banana breads.

Happy banana bread-ing!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
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