Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Multi Grain Banana Bread


What will you do if you have bananas like this sitting on your counter? Most of the people I know will throw it in trash. Not me. I could've made some muffins, but I chose to experiment an yeast bread using bananas. You see, if you google for 'Banana Bread', you get mostly the quick bread recipes. On the top of this experiment, I also wanted to use some brown rice flour and barley flour. Here goes my experiment..

Ingredients:
  1. Brown Rice flour - 1/2 cup
  2. Bread Flour - 1 cup
  3. Warm water - 3/4 cup
  4. Sugar - 1 TBSP
  5. Active dry yeast - 1/2 tsp
  6. Non fat dry milk powder - 1 TBSP
  7. Whole wheat flour - 1 + 1/2 cup (Use 1 cup first and the remaining only if needed)
  8. Oil - 2 TBSP
  9. Barley Flour - 1/4 cup
  10. Vital Wheat gluten - 2 TBSP
  11. Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
  12. Salt - 1/2 tsp
  13. Non fat dry milk powder - 1 TBSP 
  14. Mashed bananas - 1 cup (I used 4 of them)
  15. Cardamom - 7 pods powdered
  16. Little milk for brushing the loaf before baking
Method:
The day before you plan on baking the bread:
In a bowl, mix first 6 ingredients with a wooden spoon. Cover with a plastic wrap and leave it on the kitchen counter for 8 - 10 hours (overnight).

The day you make the bread:
In another large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients (1 cup of whole wheat flour) except milk for brushing and slowly pour the sponge (above) to it. Start mixing the dough. Depending on how moist your bananas are, you might have to add the rest of the wheat flour. Knead for 10 - 15 minutes. You could use a bread machine or a stand mixer with dough hook to make it easier. Coat with oil and leave it in a bowl. Let it rise for an hour or till double in volume.

 Punch down the dough. Spray vegetable oil spray to a 9 X 6 pan (you could use 9 X 5, but might get really high loaf or try reducing bananas to 3 and use less wheat flour. This can be baked in 9 X 5). This dough is a little sticky to shape very well. I didn't add more flour since I wanted lot of banana flavor. Pat the dough into the pan and try to smooth as much as possible. Cover with a greased aluminum foil and let it rest for 30 - 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. I did at 350 F since as you can see it is a dark pan. Brush the top of the loaf with milk. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 F (in my case 325 F) and cover with an aluminum foil. Bake for another 10 - 12 minutes or till golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom. Brown sugar caramelizes and gives it a nice brown crust. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and turn on to the cooling rack for complete cooling. Slice when completely cool. It was an awesome bread which is a little denser on crumb structure but had lots of banana flavor.
I am sending this to Susan's 'Yeast Spotting' hosted here.  

Happy Baking!! Pin It

15 comments:

  1. Wow, it looks so yummy and I love Banana bread, especially with nuts, so, once I am a bit more into baking, I am going to give it a try.

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  2. Thats a beautiful bread...looks fabulous..

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  3. Yummy Bread! Turned out great for an experiment!

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  4. thanks for reminding me, updated it :)
    Bread looks nice, healthy too

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  5. I like cardamom flavours...this must have been aromatic one' for sure.

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  6. wow!!! this is great..I love banana bread too....

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  7. wow!!! this is great..I love banana bread too....

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  8. Sooo soft and delicious bread...

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  9. looks delicious and healthy... nice creative way to use leftover bananas!

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  10. I like the sound of the cardamom mixed into this bread!

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  11. This is the recipe that brought me to your blog. A Banana bread that is Not a quick-bread.I followed it exactly as written, as I often do with a new recipe. Since you mentioned that my 9x5 might be small, I tore off a nice chunk of bread, rolled it into a rectangle and slathered it with butter, cinnamon-sugar, and rasins, cut into slices and let them overpoof along with the bread. THEY were delicious, but your bread was truly SPECIAL. I thank you for the recipe and will be checking out your blog more often. I might even considering starting my own. I have never done that. Thanks again John (Jersey City New Jersey)

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  12. John,
    Thanks for the feedback. I get feedback through emails more than through comments. And I agree that a banana bread that is not a quick bread is hard to find the recipe for.

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