We had to specially buy bananas to get overripe for this.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Buttermilk Banana Bread.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
4 eggses
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla (I used a bit more than 1 Tbsp)
4 cups flour
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I used 2 tsp true cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg)
1 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggses and mix well. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans (I used a set of four minis). Bake for one hour and let cool slightly before removing from the pans and cooling on a wire rack.

What worked: Quite good, a nice very high rise and tang from the buttermilk, and no back-of-the-mouth greasy feel. I added a bit of nutmeg as I like the added complexity.

What didn't: I prefer the contrast with walnuts, and the richer flavor of brown sugar (along with possibly a bit of wheat flour... basically my usual banana bread, if I can say such a thing when I might make one batch a year.)

Will I make it again? Not this recipe, but I might start using buttermilk in place of regular milk in my usual recipe and see how that works. If I remember next time.

What I'm reading: Walter Jon Williams, Aristoi

Comments

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

I use the recipe (more or less) from cooks illustrated, with fat free yogurt. it gives a nice moist crumb and nice tang too :) (fat free sour cream does NOT substitute, by the way. you know, in case you were curious ;))


mmm. I think I have enough bananannas on the counter to make a batch....

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I don't see any sugar in the ingredients list, but you ask us to cream some with the butter. I'm curious as to how much they wanted you to use.

I agree that walnuts are important in a banana bread.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

um, oops. Corrected.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

My standby banana bread recipe (which, believe it or not, is from a Betty Crocker cookbook... the very first cookbook I ever got, when I was a kid) uses buttermilk also. I often substitute yogurt. Works nicely either way.

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

Knowing you, I have to ask -- because there's precedent for both options:

The buttermilk: Is it from a carton, or is it the byproduct of actual butter processing at home?

And would it make a difference?


I've made buttermilk pancakes (with and without bananas) with both kinds (We had nearly a whole carton of Manufacturer's cream after the holiday food frenzy, and since I needed butter, anyways...).

I find that the buttermilk left over in my food processor after making butter makes a sweeter pancake, but the alleged 'buttermilk' from a carton makes them fluffier.

Taste or texture. I need to find a good balance.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I used commercial cultured buttermilk. I assume that it would indeed make a difference (less variation, both good and bad, from the commercial stuff) but I have not experimented in that direction.