Bananas are great, because they're pretty easily frozen and keep for a long time, regardless of how ripe they were when you got them initially. You can use them for smoothies, vegan banana ice cream (just mash up with a little cinnamon, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Freeze it and you're set), or one of my personal favorites: banana bread.
Banana bread is great for a lot of reasons.
1) I'm poor. Gift-giving times like pot lucks, birthdays, or Christmas can be difficult on the rent money, so finding cheaper, home-made alternatives to give as gifts is awesome. If you make a seriously yummy loaf of banana bread and wrap it with a jar of Nutella (less than $3) to spread on top, you just made someone's tummy very happy.
2) As stated before: banana bread + Nutella. GREAT.
3) Banana bread can be used as breakfast food AND snack food AND dessert food. Look at that versatility!
4) Overripe or defrosted bananas are actually ideal for making banana bread, so it's a dumpster diver's dream!
I'm still experimenting with finding the best banana bread recipe, so I'd encourage you to find one online or through your family that seems to be popular or to your liking (vegan, gluten-free, low-fat, etc.) until my recipe is fine-tuned enough to post.
To prepare you, most (non-vegan) banana bread recipes call for:
Ingredients:
- 3-4 bananas
- Butter
- Sugar (brown or white)
- 1 Egg
- Vanilla
- Baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- Flour
- Chocolate chips (optional)
- 1 loaf pan (most grocery stores will sell recyclable/disposable loaf pans if you're giving the bread as a gift or taking it to a pot luck).
If you're defrosting the bananas - be forewarned - there's usually some liquid at the bottom of your container once they defrost. This is NORMAL. Just discard the liquid and add maybe 1 more banana than your recipe called for (like, if it says to use 3, go with 4).
Also, I usually freeze bananas with their skins on. This just means that you need to cut them off before you put them in a smoothie or make vegan ice cream.
Also, don't be afraid if your bananas have brown spots. This is also normal.
Items not dumpstered or donated: Butter, egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt, flour (from the sadly now-defunct Beet Food Co-op)
For what it's worth, here's my favorite banana bread recipe. It was given to me by Mog (another Harkie):
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2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 3)
1 cup all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup whole wheat flour, unsifted
1/3 cup hot water
Optional tasty additions: chocolate chips, walnuts, lavender, etc.
Melt butter and blend in sugar. Mix in beaten eggs and mashed banana, blending until smooth. In a bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, salt, soda, and whole wheat flour until thoroughly blended. Add dry ingredients alternately with hot water. Stir in optional tasty additions. Spoon batter into a greased 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.
Bake in a 325-degree oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, until bread begins to pull away from sides of pan and a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minuets; then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Makes 1 loaf.
Hey, Kate! I'm late to your party, but it's never too late for banana bread, right? I love my family's recipe which is pretty standard. I discovered in a fit of poorly-planned baking that it actually works BETTER with the corn starch egg substitution, because it gets a little crustier, which I love. I've made accidentally-vegan banana bread by using that substitution along with Earth Balance instead of butter. Works like a charm every time. Now I want some!
ReplyDeleteJane L.