The One That Nearly Didn't Make It

Banana bread #5 is one of those recipes that I instinctively shy away from. Anything that calls for egg whites and oil scream of healthy, low fat and generally dry and cardboardy. This recipe is from BBC Australian Good Taste magazine and is from the kids cooking section.

The Photos

Fresh out of the oven

Can you see the lumps of flour?

The Recipe

2 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
¾ C brown sugar
¼ C rice bran oil
1 ½ C plain flour
1 ¼ t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
½ t bicarb soda

Preheat oven to 180C and line a loaf tin.
Combine egg whites, banana, sugar and oil in a large bowl.
Sift dry ingredients.
Fold together until just combined and spoon into prepared pan.
Bake 1 ¼ hours until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve warm, cold or lightly toasted with butter or cream cheese spread.

The Results

Believe it or not, this banana loaf is the best so far. I was so surprised. It makes a small loaf and I used a smaller tin than the others so it filled the tin nicely. It cooked in 55 minutes, rather than the 75 minutes suggested by the recipe. It was crunchy on the outside, sweet and bananary on the inside. It was nice with butter or eaten plain. It toasted well, but was as nice to eat fresh.

The Score

9/10. The best by far.

Banana Bread #4

The picture


The recipe
This recipe comes from the Canadian Food Website - Food Network Canada, and is a recipe from Christine Cushing.

Banana Bread
2 or 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup/250 ml)
1/4 cup honey (60 ml)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla (7 ml)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (60 ml)
1 cup plain yogurt, full fat (250 ml)
2 tbsp vegetable oil (30 ml)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (375 ml)
2 tsp baking soda (10 ml)
1/2 tsp salt (2 ml)
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 180C
Lightly grease a 4-inch X 8-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mash bananas.
Add the honey, vanilla, sugar, yogurt and oil. Mix with a spoon or spatula to combine.
Sift flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg onto parchment paper or another bowl. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until golden and tester comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes.
Flip onto a wire rack and cool completely.

The results.
As you can see there is no picture of the completed loaf, I was too eager to try it.
The cake was soft and moist, with quite a cakey texture. There was very little banana or spice flavour and that horrible bicarb after taste.

The next day it was still very moist but the bicarb after taste was just too much and I couldn't eat it. Although it was soft and cakey it toasted nicely and this hid the bicarb taste. I enjoyed it toasted.

The score 4/10
Although this loaf was nice toasted it was inedible when fresh because of the bicarb taste.