Pan de Platano (Banana Bread)

A banana is a Platano Johnson in Cuban. Why? No se. That's just what the long yellow banana is called.

It just is.

We never had banana bread in our house growing up and the only person I ever knew of as a banana bread baker was Rosana, my best friend's mom. I just chalked that up to her growing up in Miami, not because she was Cuban.

She used to gift her banana bread -- it was that good. And when Diana had her own place, I'd see the rotten bananas in her fridge, just like at her mom's house, and I knew she'd have some banana bread to share in the near future.

I had bananas that were rotten (read: perfect for this recipe) and had placed them in the fridge to stop the ripening process a few days before making this recipe.





They were perfect, mashable and so sweet. Que rico.

While reading through Recipe #542: Pan de Platano, I didn't realize that Nitza asks you to fold the dry ingredients plus the wet ingredients into the butter, sugar and eggs. I beat the ingredients, and as Nathan from La Cocina de Nathan warned, the consistency of the banana bread was a bit denser than if I would have folded the ingredients together.

But the taste was just right. And such an easy recipe to for those rotten bananas that always seem to be in my house -- and yours.

I think I know what to make for Rosana for Christmas.





- Posted using BlogPress

215: Pan de Platano (Banana Bread)

Ingredients:



1 cup ripe banana pulp
1 teaspoon lime juice
3 Tablespoons milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel the bananas and discard skin. Mash bananas.




3. Add the lime juice to the mashed bananas to prevent them from turning brown.
4. In a blender or with a hand mixer, mix the mashed bananas with lime juice and the milk.



5. Sift the dry ingredients - flour, double acting baking powder, salt, baking soda.



6. Using the hand mixer, beat the butter.
7. Add the sugar to the butter, a little at a time.



8. Add the eggs to the butter, one at a time, mixing well after each one.



9. Alternate folding in the dry ingredients and the banana wet ingredients to the butter mixture.
10. Optional: add the nuts, dusted with a teaspoon of flour, to the batter.
11. Fill a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan with the batter.



12. Bake for one hour - an hour and ten minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.



- Posted using BlogPress