Banana Bread

This tasty bread is a product of leftover bananas in my kitchen. I bought the bananas for my baby EJ but the big bunch of Del Monte pieces are more than enough for a 5 month-old to stomach.

So, here comes a basic recipe of banana bread with a twist of orange peel & chocolate tidbits on top. This is best served hot to savor the sweet smelling orange and the chocolate melts in your mouth, hmm...yum,yum!




Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinammon
1 egg
1 cup mashed nananas (2 large Del Monte bananas)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp finely shredded lemon or orange peel
1/2 cup chocolate tidbits (nuts can also be an alternative)

1. Grease an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder,baking soda,cinammon, add a pinch of salt.
3. In another bowl combine the wet ingredients: egg, sugar, oil & banana. To ensure consistency, I used a hand mixer and added finely shredded orange peel.
4. Add the wet to the dry mixture and stir until homogeneous. The texture of the batter is typically lumpy. Add the choco tidbits on top or you can also fold in nuts.
5. Transfer batter into the prepared pan. Bake in 180C oven for 50 to 60 mins or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the pan,remove the loaf and set aside on a wire rack.

Makes 16 servings.

A couple of learnings:

• For the fullest aroma, allow the bananas to really ripen almost turning into dark color.
• If you wish to make this bread moist, you can add about 1/4 cup of milk but watch-out in making the batter too runny in texture, the bread will not rise very well.