Ben Boo's Banana Bread

For my first blog post I thought we'd start off with a simple, classic recipe that has always been a favorite treat of mine.  Being a college student means that leavened bread with yeast is impossible because a) I'm too lazy and lack the foresight to start the dough in the morning and b) it's too cold in our drafty old rental house to get the yeast to actually play along and give that sticky mixture some gas!  Few things are as cheap and easy as a batter based banana bread, and I had some nasty black bananas hanging out and hurting my freezer's swagger so the decision to make a loaf was easy.  If we will all turn in our scriptures to page 246, we can find Bittman's simple and classic take on our favorite medium for a nice slab of butter.  His recipe is indeed a good one, though as I was collaborating with a roommate who had his own designs on how our bread should taste we took quite a few liberties and the results were...pretty good.  It went a little something like this:

Ben and Mike's Chai Banana Bread!


    1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
    1 cup granulated sugar
    2 large eggs, room temperature
    1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off with a knife
    2 teaspoon baking powder
    1 teaspoon chili powder   
    3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
    3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
    1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
    1/4 teaspoon allspice
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2-3 bananas
    1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt (not that thick greek stuff tho)
    1 teaspoon vanilla

Methods are as follows:

Whip your butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.  Apparently this is supposed to take 2-5 minutes but there was a catch where I came to learn why hand mixers always have TWO beaters...and why it was so unfortunate that our Goodwill bought version had but one of the siblings to its name.  I chased that stick of butter around for a good 10 minutes, mixing in some improvised fork techniques and eventually declaring things "good enough."  A side note, we have a separate container for sugar that holds 4-5 vanilla beans.  Keep refilling that bad boy as needed and you will have a nice supply of subtly flavored sugar that is awesome in these kind of sweet treats. 

do note the haggard one beater setup and not so fluffy butter

Anyway, once the sugar and butter are nice and fluffy, add in one egg at a time and beat gently.  Set this mess aside and ready the dry goods!

(You'll notice I put chili powder in this as I do with pretty much everything.  I absolutely love its flavor and enjoy using it to add a subtle and unexpected touch to pancakes, french toast and banana bread.) 

Combine all spices with flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl and whisk together.  Once a sufficient blend is achieved whip them into the large bowl containing the egg mess.  The batter will be alarmingly thick but worry not!  It gets better.  After all aforementioned ingredients have gotten familiar and cozy, throw in those hideous black bananas and the yogurt and mix away, your batter is ready! 

Having preheated the oven to 350*F, pour the batter into a nice loaf pan and set on the middle rack.  Apparently it should sit in there for 60-70 minutes.  I don't know how long we left it in for but I can say that it wasn't long enough!  The bread was wet and doughy on the inside despite its dark brown outer crust, suggesting that perhaps a lower temp should be used.  Maybe 325 next time?

Voila!