my kitchen: EASY BANANA BREAD WITH CREAM CHEESE

Okay how I did I already eat three of these? They are so good out of oven. They were fluffy, moist and the top was caramelized with the sugary edges. I ended up using the kitchens aid to mash the bananas first, then add the rest of the top half of ingredients, then the dry with the flour last.

I might also add a bit of lemon juice and salt to the cream cheese next time, or less flour. Also, would this recipe work with chocolate chips?! 

When I have brown bananas in the house, I get the urge to make banana bread!! (Or freeze to make smoothies but I prefer banana bread) 

 

EASY BANANA BREAD WITH CREAM CHEESE

Original recipe here 

Banana Bread:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted

• ½ cup light brown sugar

• 1 large egg

• ¼ cup Greek yogurt (original recipe uses sour cream)

• ¼ cup white sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 ripe bananas (I used 3)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

  ½ teaspoon cinnamon (added)

Cream Cheese Filling:

• 1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

• 1 large egg

• ¼ cup white sugar

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  1 teaspoon vanilla (added)

  
  

  

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). You can use a loaf pan but I used muffin pans- it makes 12 large muffins. You can also wait to preheat after you’ve made the banana bread part, before you make the cream cheese. 

  1. 2. Make banana bread: mash bananas in mixer or with fork. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, egg, sour cream, white sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl; mix until smooth. 

     3. Whisk in baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour until just combined.

     4. Make cream cheese filling: mix together cream cheese, egg, white sugar, and flour in a medium bowl until smooth.

  2.  5. Pour 1/2 of the banana batter into each muffin liner. Then layer with spoonful of cream cheese filling. Pour remaining banana batter on top. (Don’t worry if you have cream cheese peeking out. I had almost 1 with mostly cream cheese since I put too much banana batter in the first half.)

  4. 6. Bake in the preheated oven about 30 minutes for muffins, 50 minutes for loaf, until top is firm and bounces back and toothpick in center is clean. Enjoy while warm! 

     

     
     

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

my kitchen: ONE BOWL BANANA BREAD WITH YOGURT

One Bowl Banana Bread with Yogurt

Makes 1-2 loaves

Another day, another banana bread recipe. Today’s hit recipewas from Sally’s baking addiction -My Favorite Banana Bread with 4.8 stars and 1200 plus votes. I picked it because I wanted something more moist and had some yogurt on hand (and a lot of browned bananas) and the recipe was a hit! It’s moist, not too dense, nice crust and I added chocolate chips and (and nuts to half of it) and used a square cake pan instead of a loaf pan which reduces the baking time by 20-30 min. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (leveled)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream, room temperature
• 2 cups 
• mashed bananas (about 4 large ripe bananas)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of semi sweet and milk) and added some almonds and walnuts 

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 180C 

2. Best butter and sugar on high until creamy, about 2 minutes. Then mix in eggs, one at time on medium speed; then yogurt, bananas, vanilla until mixed

3. On low, mix in dry ingredients. Sally’s recipe whisks dry beforehand but I just added one by one with flour last so it’s just one bowl. Don’t overmix 

4. Scrape sides down and mix in chocolate chips and/or nuts with spatula. I mix in 2 kinds of chocolate chips and then add nuts only to half of the side so there’s options. 

5. Bake for 60-65 minutes in loaf pan or 30-40 minutes in a square cake pan until top is browned and center is set. If you bake in loaf pan, cover the top halfway so it doesn’t burn. 

6. I can never wait for it to cool one hour. I cut it right away and try it and there’s nothing like eating it hot out of the oven! 😆 Store in fridge after 2 days, if it’s not all eaten by then. 

Enjoy! 

my kitchen: i strongly recommend FLOUR BAKERY BANANA BREAD

Today I made pizza dough from scratch for the first time (thank you Mark Bittman). I don’t know why but for some reason I had been afraid of baking recipes that called for yeast and when I finally made my own focaccia last week I realized that instant yeast is my friend. 

So today after making pizza, the oven was still hot, I had a few very ripe bananas on the counter and coincidentally had creme fraiche in my fridge. So I’m glad I tried this popular banana bread recipe from my favorite Flour Bakery in Boston because it is AMAZING. Moist, caramelized crust and not too dense from whipping the eggs and sugar together first. Definitely worth the effort, though I moved the directions around a bit so that you can just use 1 mixing bowl.

Thank You Joanne Chang!!! I miss Flour Bakery, I want to try to make their breakfast sandwich next!! 

FLOUR BAKERY BANANA BREAD

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• *1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar *(I reduced to 3/4 cup, I might use 1/2 cup next time)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil
• *3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed *(I used 4)
•  2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• *2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped *(I used whole pecans on top) 
• *added a handful of chocolate chips)
• *(I also added 1 teaspoon baking powder to get the top to rise higher)

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F (180C). Line the loaf pan with parchment paper.or butter generously 

Beat sugar and 2 eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Slowly drizzle in 1/2 cup oil. Add mashed bananas, 2 tablespoons creme fraiche, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. 

Sift together the 1 2/3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 tsp salt. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts. Pour into a lined loaf pan and *stir in a handful of chocolate chips atop. Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until middle is set and top is golden

My kitchen: EASY BANANA BREAD WITH YOGURT

I had the best mini loaf of banana bread from Tamed Fox a few weeks ago and since then I’ve been craving it. I actually went back a few times but they didn’t have it or ran out and sometimes you just can’t wait. I had some ripe bananas but only had two, so I adjusted this Recipe that used 2 bananas and I had some walnuts on hand, but pecans would work too. I also need to find some whole wheat flour since I really loved it in Tamed Fox’s version and it makes it slightly healthier. Putting this down for the next time I need it. 

Easy Banana bread with yogurt

(This recipe made 12 muffins) 

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar 
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used salted butter so I omitted)
• 1/2 cup yogurt 
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips 
• 2 medium bananas, mashed 

1- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). 

2- In a large bowl, stir together 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/2 cup sugar. 

3- Add 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla, mix well. 
4- Add 1.5 cup flour and 1 tsp baking soda, stir into the liquid mixture until smooth. Then, fold in the 1/2 cup yogurt, and 2 mashed bananas. 

5- Finally add walnuts and chocolate chips with some to sprinkle on top. 

6- Spoon into muffin tin so it’s 80 percent full.

7- Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and top is browned. 

This is the previous recipe I used- http://hungryintaipei.blogspot.com/2015/01/my-kitchen-easy-banana-bread-muffins.html?m=1

my kitchen: easy banana bread muffins

Even though I love banana bread, I had never made it myself. I just relied on the good fortune of friends who knew how to make it and would share their baking results. So when I found some overripe bananas in my kitchen recently, I finally picked one recipe to give a try (and there are SO many banana bread recipes out there!) and it turned out really great!  I like this recipe because it's a one bowl recipe and there's no fuss of mixing dry and wet ingredients separately. I used a muffin tin instead of making a loaf and it comes out just about a dozen muffins unless you fill the cups even more so you get the overflowing muffin tops.

The second time I used this recipe, I used 3/4 cup cake flour and 3/4 cup bread flour and lowered the butter and sugar to 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar. My bananas were also not as overripe and I didn't add the ingredients in the order of the recipe. It turned out less cupcake like and more muffin/bready if that makes sense. It was more brown and beige, not as golden yellow and pretty as the first time, and not as sweet overall. It was still good, but definitely tasted more healthy. That's why baking is so interesting-- can you get the same results all the time or will each time always be different?

Anyone have killer banana bread recipes to share?

EASY BANANA BREAD RECIPE
(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients (I starred the ingredients with a  * for the ones I added to or changed from the original recipe)

• 3 very ripe bananas, peeled
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• *1/2 cup sugar (I used half brown and half white. The original recipe uses 1 cup, but says you can use less)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• *Pinch of salt (I only had salted butter on hand so I used that and omitted the extra pinch of salt)
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• *1 teaspoon cinnamon (I love the extra layer that cinnamon gives plus it smells so good, but you can add less if you don't want it to be as strong)
• *1/2 cup chocolate chips 

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until smooth. 

Mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas.

Stir in the baking soda and salt. Mix in the sugar, beaten egg, cinnamon and vanilla extract. 

Fold in the flour. Do not over mix, best to mix by hand once the egg is in.

Top with chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into your prepared muffin tin. Bake for 30 minutes (check at 20 minutes) at 350°F (175°C), or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is a nice golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool. Or taste test one hot out of the oven is what I usually like to do!