Food Network Cooking: Banana Nut Bread

I've been craving Banana Nut Bread recently. The Banana Nut Loaf is the only reason I go to Starbucks... I don't drink coffee. Something about Banana Nut Bread reminds me of home. Maybe it's the pecans, I dunno? Of course, Ryan doesn't eat pecans so this whole loaf went to work with me and was gone by the end of the day. I can't really say that proves it's great, the people at my work will eat anything. But, several did come back for seconds, so I feel pretty good about this one! :)

I've bought banana's a little more often recently but never seem to eat them all, so I have been sticking one in the freezer here and there. I finally had enough to make some bread so I searched the web for a good recipe. I decided I'd try the Food Network website and hope Paul Dean would have a recipe... I thought Banana Bread would be right up her alley. Either she didn't have one or I didn't like how it sounded, so I picked Tyler Florence instead.

Note: Peeling banana's that have been frozen is not fun. I suggest peeling what you can while frozen, then using a potato peeler to get the rest off. Once they thaw, it is complete mush and not fun!

Banana Bread with Pecans
By: Tyler Florence -- Food Network Host


2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together for a good 3 minutes; you want a light and fluffy banana cream. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla; beat well and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated; no need to overly blend. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Give the pan a good rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Don't get nervous if the banana bread develops a crack down the center of the loaf; that's no mistake, it's typical. Rotate the pan periodically to ensure even browning.

Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing. Toast the slices of banana bread, dust with confectioners' sugar, and serve.

Next time, I think I'll make these as muffins that way I can make a couple without pecans for Ryan.

French Bread - Take 2

In a previous post, I mentioned that I attempted the French Bread recipe from Foodie Bride's blog. After my successful King Cake last weekend and new found dough-rising technique, I decided to give the French Bread another try.

I decided to make the bread while I also made breakfast (more on this later). This was a bad idea because both needed the oven... thus ruining my new dough-rising technique. So I just left the dough on the counter, near the little window where the sun creeps in and hoped for the best. Of course, we had plans for the day (rug shopping, ugh) and it was time to go and the dough had not doubled yet. Ryan was ready to go so the bread had to go in the oven. Here's the final product.

Once again, it TASTED divine, looked pretty good but is just "heavy". Oh well, guess I will have to try again! :)

Mardi Gras - King Cake!

It's that time of year again. When people do crazy things for little plastic beads. For me, I think of all my Millsaps friends from Louisiana and the couple of Mardi Gras weekends I spent in New Orleans and Lafayette eating delicious cajun food. Then, being the sugar lover that I am, I think of King Cake and all that gooey sugary goodness on the inside and the outside.


My co-worker, Erica, married a boy from Louisiana and inherited a cookbook full of his mothers Louisiana recipes. She has been kind enough to share some with us, the latest of which is this delicious Louisiana King Cake recipe. This recipe could easily be made into a regular breakfast cinnamon roll as well.

I did learn some things...

I attempted some French Bread a couple of weeks ago and didn't do well on getting the dough to rise. It tasted good but was heavy. This time I did better. Ryan keeps our house on a cool 68 year round. This is not prime temperature to allow dough to rise. Another food blogger, FoodieBride, has a nifty setting on her oven for dough that keeps the oven at something around 9oF. I am not this lucky. So, before I started mixing the dough I turned my oven to the lowest setting, warm (170F). I left it on while I prepped the dough. When the oven was preheated, I turned it off. When the dough was ready, I put it in the oiled bowl, covered, etc. The oven still felt too hot. I put the bowl in the oven but left the door slightly open for the first 20-30 minutes. Then, when the oven got down to a more normal "room temperature" (not Ryan's normal, but normal people's normal) I shut the door. It took about an hour to more than double!

I also learned that when Ryan says things like "I don't like King Cake", I should just ignore him and continue baking. When I was done baking and decorating, I gave him a small slice to taste. When he got to a break point in his favorite XBox360 game, I heard a convincing "mmmm" coming from the couch. Five minutes later, a second (and three times larger) piece was requested. If the way to the man's heart is truly the stomach... an night of Davis Spaghetti and fresh baked King Cake should do the trick! Successful night of baking.