Multigrain Banana Cake

 

I made this cake a while ago (I mentioned it here), but the memory of its satisfyingly delicious simplicity lingers on. It’s sweet, but not too. It’s moist from the bananas, but not so. It’s healthy-ish because of the whole grain flour, but, well, come on. It’s still dessert.

I based this on a cake recipe in Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. That recipe is made with quinoa flour and ground walnuts, which I’m sure is fabulous. I wanted to try a 7-grain flour blend I picked up, though, and I had some bananas of a certain age, so this seemed a good place to put them both. I also put in some chocolate chips in place of the walnuts. Purely a personalized design decision.

 

There are a couple of ways you could go with the whole grain addition to this dessert, or one like it. I like the convenience of the ready-made 7-grain product I purchased, and will use it again in other recipes. I did, however, miss the malty tones of the multigrain mixture I talked about in this post (also based on Good to the Grain). The 7-grain also had a coarser texture that may have matched some ground nuts well. Really, all kinds of whole grain flours would work here, even just whole wheat flour, so you can try anything with a flavor that appeals to you.

This cake lasted well for several days as two of us polished it off wedge by wedge. I seriously considered making a chocolate cream cheese frosting for it, but it really wasn’t necessary. Not that necessity has much to do with desserts. Maybe I will gild this simple cake with some frosting some day, but until then, I recommend it as a perfectly good snacking cake of little effort and much reward.

Multigrain Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips

Adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce

1 cup 7-grain flour (or multigrain flour of your choice)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

3 medium-size ripe bananas (about 1 ¼ pounds), mashed

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan or spray it with cooking spray. Dust the buttered pan with flour. Cut a circle of parchment paper the size of the pan (trace the pan right on the paper) and place it in the bottom of the pan. Butter and flour the paper.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and salt. Sift or whisk together to combine well. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or another medium-size bowl if you are using a hand mixer) combine the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Using the paddle attachment, beat together for about 2 minutes, or until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

4. Beat in the mashed bananas. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Beat in the yogurt and vanilla.

5. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until just combined, being sure to moisten any flour that is at the bottom of the bowl. Stir in the chocolate chips.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes or until a pick inserted in the center comes out free of wet batter. Cool the cake in the pan until it is at least cool enough to serve. Remove from the pan and remove the parchment circle. Cut into wedges to serve.

Makes 8-12 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Banana Quick Bread, Blueberry Banana Quick Bread, Zucchini Multigrain Coffee Cake

One year ago: Cabbage and Turnip Soup with Beef Broth

Banana Yeast Bread

I end up buying a lot of bananas (organic and fairly traded if I could, please) this time of year, since the citrus season is waning and it’ll be quite some time before locally grown fruits will be available. With the overripe bananas, I could make banana quick bread and banana muffins to my heart’s content, and it would take quite a while to completely content my heart when it comes to these delicious things, but something a bit different is always welcome nonetheless.

Okay so a yeasted bread with bananas in it is not as different as some of the more unique culinary uses of bananas one could find out there, but I quite like this one. It’s like a sandwich bread in texture with the hint of the flavor of classic banana quick bread. I also add a generous helping of walnuts to the dough, which I think gives the otherwise soft and moist bread a bit of needed structure and crunch.

 

I make this bread pretty much the same way as I make any other yeast bread. I mix up a “mini starter” with the liquid ingredients, the yeast and some of the flour. I let that stand for a while, which I think serves to improve the action of the yeast as well as the flavor of the bread. I then knead in the rest of the flour using the dough hook for my Kitchen Aid mixer.

I have found that this bread rises best when the dough is moister and stickier than I usually will tolerate in a bread dough. You can knead in more flour to make a dough that is a little easier (and less messy) to handle, which is what I did this time I made it, but it takes much longer to rise to its required shape and size.

 

I mostly just eat this bread with a swipe of butter, or I toast it before buttering it, but I think if you like peanut butter and banana, you could use it to support a peanut butter sandwich. It’s also fabulous when used to make French toast, something I just confirmed this morning. I thought of taking a photo, but I was too busy eating and enjoying it. An occupational hazard, I guess.

Banana Walnut Yeast Bread

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens: The Complete Guide to Bread Machine Baking

I recommend allowing the dough to remain a bit sticky for this bread. It may be more difficult and messier to handle, but the loaf should rise better than when the dough is stiffer.

1/3 cup milk warmed to about 100 F

3 tablespoons sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 egg

2 medium very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

3 cups bread flour, divided

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine warm milk, butter, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer (or another large bowl if mixing by hand. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until the yeast is foamy.

2. Mix in the butter, egg and banana using the paddle attachment for the mixer (or a spoon or hand-held mixer). Mix in 2 cups of the bread flour to make a thick batter. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand about 30 minutes.

3. Add the salt and cinnamon to the foamy batter. Using the dough hook for the mixer gradually knead in as much of the remaining cup of bread flour as needed to make a smooth, stretchy, but still somewhat sticky dough. Knead in the walnuts.

4. Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Shape the sticky dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Spray the dough ball with the cooking spray. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the dough. Cover the whole bowl with a towel. Let stand until roughly double in size, 1-1 ½ hours.

5. Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray an 8 x 5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Re-shape the dough into a loaf and place it in the prepared pan. Cover with a towel and let rise until double in size, at least 1 hour, possibly longer.

6. When the loaf has completely risen, bake at 375 F for 35 minutes. The crust should be dark brown. Remove from the pan and cool on a cooling rack.

Makes a 1 ½ pound loaf.

Other recipes like this one: Banana Quick Bread, Walnut Buttermilk Bread

One year ago: Green Pea Hummus

Basics: Banana Bread

Though bananas are easily available and really affordable (even the fairly-traded ones!) all year, I only tend to buy them in the sort of fruit off-season after the winter Citrus Crush and before the spring Berry Boom (and way, way before any locally grown fruits are available). I’ve heard there are some good berries out there, but I haven’t really had time to seek them out. But the bananas are right where I can always find them, and their quality is reasonably easy to judge, and so I’ve been buying bananas.

Since I’ve been buying bananas, I’ve been making banana bread. Of course I “over buy” bananas on purpose, otherwise I would eat them all before they get to that delightfully well-spotted and almost mushy stage that makes for the best baked goods. If they get to that stage before you’re ready for them, you can always toss them into the freezer. I prefer to peel them first, just scooping the fruit into a freezer bag.

There are probably several hundred banana bread recipes, most of which are variations on a simple original. Many of them are favorite family recipes, and if you have one of those that you are happy with (or at least dedicated to), you’ve probably turned away from this page already. The recipe I use isn’t a family recipe, although I know my mom and grandmother made plenty of banana bread. This one comes from the people at Cooking Light, although I un-lightened it a bit. (What the heck is light butter, anyway?)

This recipe is very good, giving me consistent results every time I make it. The addition of whole wheat pastry flour gives it a hint of nutty, grainy flavor without overwhelming the fruitiness of the bananas. The bread is moist but - and I think this is the best part – there isn’t a weird, gooey, unbaked trench running along the top of the loaf as I’ve seen in so many old fashioned recipes. I’m not sure what causes that phenomenon. All I really know is that when I use this recipe in a 9-inch bread pan, it doesn’t appear.

Since I use that larger loaf pan (as opposed to the 8-inch pan I use for sandwich breads like this one), the slices of banana bread resemble narrow rectangles that hold themselves together well without being tough or dry. You could use a smaller pan or even mini loaf pans or muffin tins to bake the batter, but you’ll need to adjust the baking time: I think to about 45 minutes for mini loaves and 20 to 25 minutes for muffins.

Of course, there’s plenty of room for some mix-ins in this recipe. I’m partial to walnuts when I have them or even mini chocolate chips. I’ve heard coconut is good in banana bread, but I usually share baked goods with my husband and he won’t touch the stuff. You could also play around with different flours if you’re so inclined or try stirring in some oats to bump up the Whole Food Quotient even more. That’s the beauty of a basic recipe. And the ubiquitous Banana Quick Bread is a basic even beginning bakers can master.

Banana Quick Bread

Based on a recipe in The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

¼ cup milk

¼ cup sour cream

1 2/3 cup mashed banana (about 3 large bananas)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk or sift together to mix well. Set aside.

3. Whisk the egg and melted butter together until smooth. Whisk in the milk and sour cream. Whisk in the mashed banana.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon just until all the dry ingredients are moistened.

5. Spray a 9-inch bread pan with cooking spray or grease it with butter or oil. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the bread comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

6. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Makes 1 9-inch loaf.

Other recipes like this one: Espresso Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, Double Banana Walnut Pancakes, Peanut Butter and Banana Breakfast Cookies