When life gives you lemons… No! Wait. I already used that line in the last post. Let’s start over.
Here’s a better (and more gentle) lede: A hot cup of tea. A warm slice of banana bread. Golden sunshine streaming through the window and warming your face. It doesn’t get any better…
In this moment of making do and foreswearing food waste, I found myself with several disgustingly-squishy ripe bananas. Toss ’em? Not an option. Not now.
In fact, every time I passed the fruit bowl today, I’d swear I heard a little voice whisper “Banana bread. Make banana bread.” My id? Maybe. After all, I have a longstanding love affair with banana bread.
More likely, though, my “banana whisperer” was my pup, sweet Juliet. Juliet is on a treat ration. Juliet is not amused. Maybe banana bread is Juliet’s plan B.
I love banana bread and I’m always on the lookout for a new variation on the theme. This recipe is adapted from one that appears in a relatively new cookbook Midwest Made by Shauna Sever. It is a nice cookbook with a lot of reassuring Midwest recipes like St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake, Apple Pie and this “The Only Banana Bread You Will Ever Need.” That’s a big boast for a banana bread recipe and it caught my eye. The recipe uses buttermilk and a tot of rum–interesting variations on the usual banana bread recipe.
Over the last four years, I’ve posted a number of banana bread recipes. You can find them by typing bananas into the search bar on the right of your screen.
Here’s my adaptation of the recipe.
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 3/4 C. mashed ripe bananas (I didn't have quite this amount but my bread turned out fine)
- 3/4 C. plus 2 T. firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 C. vegetable oil
- 1/3 C. well-shaken buttermilk at room temperature (you can substitute milk curdled with some lemon juice)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 T. dark rum
- 1 t. pure vanilla extract
- 2 C. plus 2 T. unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 t. baking powder
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1/2 t. fine sea alt
- 3 T. granulated sugar (for sprinkling)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. and position a rack in the lower third of the oven.
- Prepare a loaf pan (9 inch by 5 inch) by spraying it with cooking spray and lining the pan with parchment paper. Let some of the parchment hang over the long sides of the pan. You will use those long pieces of parchment as handles to safely remove the cake from the pan once it is done.
- Combine mashed bananas, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, eggs, rum and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix to combine.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until everything is just blended.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the top.
- Put the granulated sugar into a small bowl. Wet your hands and pinch the sugar and the water on your hands together until the sugar begins to clump like snow. Scatter clumps of sugar onto the top of the bread. This will give a nice crunchy top to your bread.
- Bake in 325 degree F. preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes (mine was on the longer side) or until the bread is firm when you press the top and a toothpick inserted into the bread comes back clean. Remove bread from the oven and let it sit on a rack for about 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, use a knife to free up the sides of the bread and use the parchment handles to remove the bread from the pan. Let the bread cool completely on a wire rack before serving. Enjoy!
- Cook's Note: If you don't have buttermilk, combine 1 T. lemon juice and enough milk to fill a cup measure. Stir and leave on your counter for about 5 minutes to curdle. Voila!
Calories
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You can buy the Midwest Made cookbook here.
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