It’s been established among family that my “food memory” ability has pretty strong game. No better example than my recollection of making a banana bread recipe as a kid from a light tan spiral-bound Geneva Mother’s Club (now Geneva Women’s Club) cookbook from the late 70s or 80s?? It had all the standards: eggs, buttermilk/yogurt, butter, and sugar. I would love to get my hands on a copy of that cookbook but instead I resorted to trying to find something similar.
I ended up landing on BBC Food’s simply titled, Banana Bread, recipe and went with it. I made 3 alterations as I tend to do.
- Swapped in homemade yogurt for buttermilk
- Used 1/2 dark brown sugar and 1/2 granulated white – thought any caramelization from the dark would be *chef’s kisses
- Added a few smatterings of cinnamon and nutmeg—I would guess less than 1/4 teaspoon each
It’s quite perfect for what I was looking to satisfy memory-wise and I wanted to make a few notes for the next time I get around to making it.
- The recipe is notated in metric measurements – love that precision!!
- Disappointed that grams weren’t listed for the bananas as I had 3 smaller bananas and 1 larger, but I went with it—401 grams for me
- So glad I understand what ‘folding’ in flour mixture means – no dense glutenous-formed bread here
- At an hours time my bread—even though it had a golden top—looked slightly underdone, a toothpick came out clean but I didn’t buy it. Did some research and found these very helpful tips from King Arthur Flour. Aim for an internal temperature of 200° F. I first put it back in for an additional 10 minutes and then added 5 minutes in between each temperature check – I ended up baking an extra 25-30 minutes and yes my oven measured at 350° F. The internal temp before starting was ~ 165° F.
Recipe stated it would be 10 slices at 334 calories but I wanted to try and shave that down a little bit and was able to cut 16 slices for about 207 calories a slice. Much better for a snack.
I owe my luck with 16 slices to our really great new bread knife, letting the loaf cool for a few hours, and my cutting technique for even slices. First cut is directly down the middle then there are 2 halves, then proceed making center cuts with each “new” section until you have the number of slices you want.
😍
