I Go Bananas; and Every Time I See Your Face, I SELF-DESTRUCT!

The coffeshop that I work at has a huge bookshelf on one wall, flanked by four or five other shelves, chock full of books and magazines. People donate to them, try to steal or buy them, and usually read them if they didn't bring one of their own. My favorite part of the assortment would have to be the large collection of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. Although I get Bon Appetit, there are lots of issues from before my subscription that I like to go through.



I was doing just that one Sunday, while waiting for customers to realize that we were open so I could make them some coffee, when I came across a new banana bread recipe in the copycat section. My tried and true recipe is great, but it takes butter; and I have found that when you want to bake a lot of something, butter slows you down, both time-wise and financially. But eureka! This recipe had vegetable oil to substitute.In the end, I discovered that butter is better. This bread ended up being lighter and less dense than my other banana bread recipe, but it had just as much banana flavor.



Copycat of Some Sort of Banana Bread
Makes 2 large loaves

5 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 to 8 large overripe bananas
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups nuts, toasted and chopped (optional)


Prehet oven to 350 degrees. butter and flour two 9-inch loaf pans.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Then whisk in sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Pour flour mixture into wet mixture and whisk just until combined. Stir in nuts.

Pour batter into prepared pans and smooth tops with rubber spatula. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Store at room temperature or wrap tightly with saran wrap and freeze.

Note: If I remember correctly, this made two loaves and then some. You could probably do 2 large and 1 small loaf, or 2 loaves and some muffins.

20 Pounds of Bananas

My brother works as a manager at a nearby grocery store. This isn't a great lead-in, but there's no other way to explain how I came upon a 20-pound box of almost-ripe bananas for only a dollar (plus tax).

Do you know how many bananas are in a 20-pound box? I'm only asking because I didn't really realize how many that entailed. I didn't actually count them, but...I think it's a little more than 100 bananas.

Now, I like bananas; don't get me wrong. But I'm a busy lady and between school and work and a little bit of sleep, I can only use so many at a time for banana bread. And after about a week, 100 bananas on the counter of your laundry room start to smell quite strongly and to attract flies of the fruit variety.

In a last-ditch effort to waste...I mean, use the bananas as quickly as possible, I looked for a recipe for a banana cake, and my queries were answered by none other than Paula Deen, the southern belle herself.



I was disappointed, and I'm sorry because I always seem to be disappointed on here. Maybe it's because I'd been huffing too many bananas, but it just tasted like...banana bread with sugary cream cheese. Everyone else freaking loved it.

Also, in case you were wondering, I could not get any good pictures of the cake.



Banana Nut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes one two-layer cake

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Butter and flour 3 (9-inch) round cake pans; set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the eggs and oil and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened; do not beat. Stir in the banana, pecans, and vanilla.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 23 to 28 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake layers in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely. While the cake cools, make the frosting.

In a bowl, blend together the cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the pecans, or reserve them to sprinkle over the frosted cake. Fill and frost the cake when it is completely cool.

I Went Bananas When I Spoke to You on the Telephone

Last summer, my really good friend Kara moved wayyyy up north to Michigan and lived in an ice cube for a year. She came back to visit in early June and remembered that she liked the south. Two months later, she moved back and is enrolled to go to school this fall and everything.



In other news, I have been on a banana kick lately - eating them with different meals and as snacks, slathered in peanut butter. Keeping this in mind, I went to the store and bought a bag of Ready-to-use bananas for cheap and set to making some banana nut bread. This was good timing for me as Kara was due back in town that very night and bread is always a good gift.



To tie everything together, I made two loaves of Banana-Walnut bread and now I have to find a way to use up the other eight, extremely ripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter. Most likely, I will just be making more bread and muffins later on in the week.



I used my standby banana bread recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook that I've been baking out of since I was a kid. In the middle of making this, I realized that cinnamon wasn't listed as an ingredient, which I found quite odd. It's my favorite spice, so I just added it in and the bread tastes delicious as usual.



Banana Nut Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3 to 4 mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup nuts, chopped and toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and move oven rack so that tops of pans will be in the center of the oven. Grease 2 loaf pans, 8-inch for taller loaves and 9-inch for shorter ones or grease one 9-inch loaf pan and six muffin cups. Toast nuts if using.

Mix sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat in eggs until well blended. Add the bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla and mix until completely combined.

Then, stir in flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt, just until moistened. Fold in nuts, and pour into pans.

Bake for about 45 minutes (for 9-inch pans); I'm not sure how long 8-inch pans would take, so make sure to check at 30 minutes, and be ready to allow for more time.

Cool completely before slicing. To store, wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days or refrigerate for up to 10 days.