Sunday, March 7, 2010

Banana [choose Carrot or Pumpkin] Bread

I don't know how it is that no matter how few bananas I buy, I end up with three that are over-ripe. As a result, I make banana bread fairly often. Never one to leave well enough alone, I started experimenting. The addition of shredded carrot came about from a partial bag of carrots that was in severe danger of going bad very soon; the pumpkin, because I had half a can leftover from my latest Cookies for the Dark Side venture.

I've listed the recipes separately for ease of reading, since I adjusted the spices for each version.

Banana Carrot Bread

Ingredients:
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, room temperature
1 c packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c banana, mashed (3-4 bananas)
1 c grated carrot
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

In large bowl cream butter with sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and bananas. Add flour mixture a little at a time and blend well. Stir in grated carrots and nuts.

Pour batter into greased 9x5x3 loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool, slice, and serve.


Banana Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, room temperature
1 c packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c banana, mashed (3-4 bananas)
1 c canned pumpkin
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

In large bowl cream butter with sugar until fluffy. Mix in eggs and bananas, then add pumpkin and mis well. Add flour mixture a little at a time and blend well. Stir in nuts.

Pour batter into greased 9x5x3 loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool, slice, and serve.




7 comments:

  1. what a way to experiment. i think we've spoken about your girls being less picky than collin. as a result of his pickyness, i found a food he liked and stuffed anything i could into it..... waaaaaaaaaaaay before seinfeld's wife wrote her cook book, i was stuffing everything into my own pancake batter: pumpkin, banana, shredded apples and carrots, oatmeal, raspberries.... a less effective technique was different kinds of shredded vegetables into spaghetti sauce....... your bread looks good. i have a bunch of black bananas in my freezer.

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  2. p.s.... are you still on twitter? i left but am back........

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  3. Lisa! I was just thinking about you last night. I have a twitter account, but I don't update it often. I can't seem to get it, for some reason. I hope you are doing well....my girls are on spring break now, and we got a puppy! That's our news....

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  4. we got a pupster too. good days and harder days with the whole housetraining thing. what do you do during your 12 hour shifts? I've had three this week that have all been challenging to work with..... hope all's well in your world too.

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  5. I'm fortunate that our little one was paper-trained when we got her (she's 4 months old now). For the first couple of weeks, I'd lock her in the bathroom with her food/water/kennel/toys/puppy pad. Now that I know the cat won't beat her up (he's 3 times her size lol), she gets free reign. I don't mind cleaning up the puppy pads if it means I don't have to clean the carpet (or wake up because she needs to go out!). Trillian is a chihuahua mutt--what did you get?

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  6. lordy lordy..... got her from animal haven, same place i got my kitty raja a couple of years ago....... she's a lab/terrier mix, named Mitzi..... again, thank you animal haven. she already knew her name so didn't bother changing it..... she's 3 months and 20ish pounds... she gonna get big.....i crate her during the day or when i can't be at her side watching for the 'sniff'. wish i could do the pads.... perhaps one for the back of her crate...... tho, that might confuse her........ accidents are dwindling and the sweet doggy love sustains : )

    we really should continue in person ; )

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  7. Heh, yes, we SHOULD continue in person--over lunch, a drink, or both.

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