Skillet Fried Banana Bread

This is what happens when I leave my husband alone in the kitchen.

Really I should know better. Jeremy has the demented superpower of being able to take something reasonable like low fat banana bread and turn it into complete decadence. Diets are ruined, whipped cream stores are depleted, and sweet sweet awesomeness always ensues.

This banana bread recipe is like a regular banana bread recipe except instead of using butter I used more banana and a little coconut milk I had left over from another recipe. I replace butter with pureed fruit/vegetables a lot in quick breads and I think they come out better for it. They taste fruitier and are moister too. My pumpkin spice bread recipe doesn't use any butter either. If you don't have any coconut milk just add a few more ounces of mashed banana. I didn't use enough for the bread to have a coconut flavor anyway. As with most fruity quick breads, this tastes way better day two. So bake your bread the day before you want to fry it.

The frying is basically the technique we use for grilled cheese sandwiches. Butter both sides and brown in a skillet.  Then Jeremy went totally bananas (har har) and made some sweetened whipped cream spiked with bourbon. The whipped cream gets all melty and the boozy taste soaks into the bread. The taste is bananas foster meets bread pudding. If I'm confessing all the sugary sins we committed with this bread than I have to tell you on a couple of pieces I also added a little cider syrup I canned around the holidays. A little drizzle of caramel or butterscotch would be equally excellent.

Skillet Fried Banana Bread
Yields 1 Loaf (About 12-16 slices)
Cooking Time: For the bread: 80 minutes (20 active) Make a day ahead. To serve: 10 minutes or less
Adapted from this recipe on joyofbaking.com

Ingredients

For the bread:

1 cup (115 grams) walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

1 3/4 cups (230 grams) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 ripe large bananas (approximately 20 ounces or 567 grams), mashed with a fork 

1/4 cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the whipped cream: 

a few tablespoons heavy cream

bourbon or rum, optional

a few teaspoons sugar 

butter, for frying

Directions

Make the bread:

1. Grease a loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Stir all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and all the wet ingredients together in another bowl.

3. Pour the wet into the dry and stir just until all the flour is moistened. 

4. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

5. Cool in the pan on a rack.

To serve:

1. Using an electric mixer, whip a few tablespoons of heavy cream to soft peaks.

2. Add sugar and bourbon to taste. Start with just a teaspoon or less of alcohol because it can easily become overpowering. Whip to stiff peaks.

 

3. Slice the bread 1/4 to a 1/2 inch thick depending on how many slices you want.

4. Spread both sides of slices with a very thin layer of butter. 

5. Fry in a skillet over medium heat until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.

6. Serve hot with dollops of whipped cream on top. And if you want to be really bad, add a drizzle of caramel, butterscotch, or even maple syrup.

Banana Muffins with Pecan Crumb Topping

Today I made the last banana muffin recipe you will ever need. No really, if I had the metabolism of my marathon runner sister-in-law I would have promptly inhaled every one of these hot out of the oven. My husband would have wandered into the kitchen when the oven dinged to find my face covered in crumbs, a guilty, but blissful look on my face.

I've known for a long time that if I could choose a bizarre superpower it would be the ability to eat anything I want and still be healthy and not get fat. Given this power, I might crush the world's banana market just for this recipe. Have other people around to help you eat these or if you are Kimberly don't. You've been warned.

Banana Muffins with Pecan Crumb Topping
(adapted from MizzNezz's recipe) 
Yields 12 muffins

For the Batter:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ripe medium to large bananas, mashed with fork
1/3 cup butter (a little over 5 tbsp.), melted
1 egg beaten

For the Topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon cold butter
1/4 -1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used 1/4 cup this time, but I could easily see doubling the amount)

1. For the batter, mix all the dry ingredients except the sugars together. In a separate bowl mix the sugars, bananas, melted butter and egg. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.

2. For the topping, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and flour together. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add the pecans.

3. Fill 12 well-greased muffin tins with the batter. (Depending on the size of your bananas they'll be 3/4 or more full.) Sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. These are super moist muffins so I would remove them from the tin and cool on a rack so they don't get soggy.

A Few Tips for Newbie Muffin Bakers
(These are things I wish someone had told me before I baked my first batch of muffins way back when.)

1. The secret to a fluffy, tender muffin is to not overdevelop the gluten in the flour. That's why wet and dry ingredients are always kept separate in muffin recipes until the last step. Your goal is to stir as little as possible to combine the wet and dry ingredients. The batter should stay pretty lumpy. Resist the urge to pummel it until smooth.

2. My first couple of attempts at crumb toppings failed miserably. I hacked at the mixture with a fork until I had a buttery paste. Don't do this! You want small balls of butter mixed with the dry ingredients. The easiest way to achieve this is with a pastry blender, a simple 5 dollar tool that will save you a load of work in many baking situations (I use mine for biscuits all the time). If you don't have one handy you can cut the butter into very small pieces and stir it with the dry ingredients.

3. Brown sugar and granulated sugar can be substituted for each other on a 1 to 1 basis, just make sure the brown sugar is tightly packed. Brown sugar also adds moisture and a molasses flavor, which I personally love.