Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Doubly Baked, Without Berries

Well, technically, I suppose this banana bread (yes, another one!) was only baked once while the bananas inside it were roasted, but unless you count grapes as berries the title isn't all wrong! With such a successful result from roasting the bananas in my "worry-free" muffins, I wanted to try the same technique in a banana bread! I also had some cream cheese sitting around to use up somehow, and a knob of butter calling out to be baked. For once I did actually have enough bananas at their peak of baking worthiness (i.e. black, beginning to seep sugary sap and attracting fruit flies) hanging around to make not just one, but two loaves from this recipe! I borrowed the technique of roasting sliced bananas with butter in a casserole dish from Picky Palate's Roasted Banana Bread Brownie Bites, and kind of winged the rest of the concoction from there, generally keeping to my standard recipe.

Pure Banana Goodness
The best (and yet the most vexing) part about these loaves is that they are incredibly tender and moist - almost ridiculously so. With all those bananas, the cream cheese, and the fact that the batter is riddled with dried fruit and granola, it's asking for trouble to move these more than you absolutely have to while they're anything but completely cool. Even flipping them out was treacherous - make sure that you let them sit in the pans for a good half hour before you even try that! It is more than worth the trouble, though - the recipients of the loaves both declared this version "the best banana bread ever". Hmm, I may have to re-think my bakery's formula!!

Double-Baked Banana Bread
Makes 2 loaves, 24 servings
6 over-ripe bananas, cut into chunks
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup oat flour
1/4 cup ground flax
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup strawberry-banana granola
1/4 cup diced dates
1/4 cup raisins
  1. Preheat oven to 400F, lightly grease a small baking dish.
  2. Place bananas into the dish and drizzle with melted butter.
  3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then coarsely mash (leave some chunks). Stir in vanilla and set aside to cool slightly.
  4. Reduce oven to 350F and grease 2 loaf pans.
  5. In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter and sugar until well blended.
  6. Add egg, beating well.
  7. Mix together flours, flax, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda in another bowl, stir half into the creamed mixture.
  8. Add bananas and mix well, then add remaining dry ingredients and stir to combine.
  9. Fold in granola, dates and raisins.
  10. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in the pans, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 173.6
Total Fat: 6.7 g
Cholesterol: 25.6 mg
Sodium: 50.4 mg
Total Carbs: 26.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
Protein: 3.0 g

1 comment :

  1. That does look tender and full of healthy goodness! I wonder if substituting some of the flour with whole wheat would help give it structure without toughening it up? Well done! And I darkened the text in my banner as you suggested, looks great, thanks so much for commenting!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the feedback!