Ultimate Banana Bread

The title of this recipe does not disappoint. It's from Cook's Illustrated (July/August 2010), which did extensive tests to figure out how to cram 6, that's right, SIX bananas into this recipe. And it is amazing!

So, if you have a whole bunch of bananas you forgot to eat and are getting to an uncomfortable ripeness (like I had), try this. If you like bananas, you will be very happy with the results.

What you'll need:
- 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt (I used a bit more)
- 6 large ripe bananas (highly speckled), peeled
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I did a little less and topped it off with white sugar. I don't know why)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (NOTE: I decided to get creative and substituted some macadamia nuts and shredded coconut. Guess I just needed some tropical flavor. It worked, but walnuts would have been better.)
- 2 tsp granulated sugar


What to do:
- Put your oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350. Spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
- Put 5 bananas in a microwave-safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Cut some steam vents in it and microwave for 4 or 5 minutes. The bananas should be soft and sitting in juice.
- Transfer bananas to a fine-mesh strainer and place over a bowl to collect the juice for 15 minutes.
- Transfer liquid to a small saucepan and cook to reduce to about 1/4 cup. [NOTE: I skipped this and instead just used 1/4 cup of the liquid. But you'll get a more concentrated flavor if you reduce it like the recipe says.]
- In a medium bowl, mash the bananas and add back in the juice. Stir in the butter, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla.
- Pour banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the nuts and stir in - but don't stir too much.
- Scrape into the loaf pan. Slice the remaining banana and layer on top of the batter, leaving a good strip down the middle without any slices so it'll rise properly. Then sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean - about 50 minutes to an hour. Cool on wire rack in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool until you can't stand it anymore and need to eat it.

Zucchini Bread

It's everyone's favorite time of year: Excess zucchini time!
When life gives you zucchini, make zucchini bread.
Unfortunately, two loaves of bread only require one zucc. But that's one less sitting on the vine or in the fridge.

I use a recipe from an old cookbook my Grandparents Walden gave me - a compilation from folks in their church. So I don't know where the original came from. But it is tried and true for me - as you can see from the stained pages of the book.

It's easy, and made easier if you have a stand mixer to just dump stuff into.

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup oil (I used a mix of canola and olive)
3 eggs, beaten (I only had 2, and it turned out fine)
2 cups grated zucchini (I used more like 3 cups, and squeezed a bit of the water out of the pile before adding it in)
3 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon

Pour into oiled and floured loaf pans and bake in 325 degree oven for about an hour. Let cool a bit, then use a knife to loosen the edges and dump the bread out.

This recipe is enough for two loaves. This time, I made my loaves different from one another by adding chopped hazelnuts to one, and chocolate chips to the other.

I enjoy my bread with butter, but cream cheese is good too.