Banana-Zucchini Bread

I faced the age-old aged banana dilemma a few weeks ago. I set out to searching allrecipes.com for a recipe to use with other ingredients I had - some shredded zucchini in the freezer and some cranberries in the cupboard. This just seemed like the perfect thing to bake. I sent a loaf to work with my husband and took a loaf to work with me. I omitted the nuts but made the rest of the recipe as directed.

As I've been gaining back my appetite, this was the perfect thing for me - moist, flavorful, somewhat healthy and easy to snack on. And trust me, as I speak from experience - it's good warm or cold, fresh or a couple of days old.


Ingredients

3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup grated zucchini
2 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch bread loaf pans.


2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light yellow and frothy. Add oil, brown sugar, white sugar, grated zucchini, bananas, and vanilla; blend together until well combined. Stir in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the cranberries and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared loaf pans.


3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Allow to cool in the loaf pans on a wire rack before removing and serving.


Source: allrecipes.com

Going bananas at the grocery store

I was unpacking my bags after a trip to the grocery store recently, when I pulled out about 7 bananas from one bag. All the bananas were separated from each other, which I thought was odd. I remembered picking up a bunch of about six bananas that were all still attached to each other.

I turned to Mike, and said, "What the heck happened to our bananas? Why are they all loose from each other?" He looked at me, and then looked at our kitchen counter, where a more familiar looking bunch of bananas was already sitting.

We got someone else's bananas (and a bag of mini-marshmallows, it turned out). We really like bananas. But that's a LOT of bananas for two people to consume in a week, particularly considering that we'd also bought pineapple, pears and apples.

Knowing I would have several bananas going bad quickly --


-- I logged onto allrecipes.com, and located a banana bread recipe. Of course, as always, I read over a large chunk of the comments, so I could easily fine-tune the recipe (see my notes below).

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter or margarine. Beat the egg slightly, and mix into the creamed mixture with the bananas. Mix in sifted ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk and nuts. Spread batter into one greased and floured 9x5 inch loaf pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until top is brown and cracks along the top.


My notes

*I took some of the commenters' advice and added 1 tspn vanilla, 1 tspn cinnamon, and a little extra banana (since I had plenty). I had so much banana, in fact, that I doubled the recipe and made two loaves. I also substituted half of the white sugar for brown sugar, for color.

*I didn't have any walnuts to add, but I did have chocolate chips, so I added about a cup of those. I have a mega sweet tooth, and it was a little too sweet even for me. Next time, I'd skip the chocolate chips and make sure I had some walnuts to throw in.

*Also, to help it stay extra moist, cover with foil immediately after removing from oven for about half an hour.

*I baked mine initially for about 40 minutes, and then checked it every five minutes or so after that to see if it was done. In the end, it probably took close to 60 minutes, but I think I overbaked it ever-so-slightly. About 55 minutes would probably have done it for me. (My oven bakes on the quicker end of the spectrum.)