Banana Bread I

I've been on a banana kick lately. Which means that inevitably I'm going to have at least two over-ripe bananas sitting in my refrigerator...and probably on multiple occasions. Which means that I'm going to have to use those over-ripe bananas to keep from feeling guilty about getting rid of perfectly good produce. This is where banana bread comes in. I love the stuff, and I always have all of the ingredients on hand (except for the bananas, of course). About a week ago I made my first batch in months. I used Pamela's gluten-free baking mix and the recipe found on her site. I'm pretty sure I've made this recipe before, but it turned out differently this time.

Pamela's Banana Bread (www.pamelasproducts.com)

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted 
• 1/2 cup sugar or honey 
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup banana, mashed
• 1-3/4 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Beat together butter, sugar or honey, eggs and banana. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. Pour into a large greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.


The dough ended up pretty thick, which wasn't surprising, and made enough for one small loaf.

You can kinda see in the pic - I left the bananas kinda chunky for this batch. No particular reason, just felt like it at the time.

Baked it for about an hour and ten minutes (I've found that cooking gluten-free usually takes longer than it says it's going to), and it turned out like this:

I baked this at about 9:00 PM and had eaten a big dinner, so I had to let it sit there and cool completely without snagging a piece. Brutal. The next morning I sliced up a couple of pieces to have with my coffee (one of my favorite parts of my weekend - my morning coffee at home) and it was yummy.

Sometimes I like just heating up my breakfast breads in the microwave, but this time I stuck it in the toaster oven and it got that beautiful brown crust on it. Mmmm. Slathered it with butter and I was in heaven. 

What was interesting about this batch of bread was that it was very dense. I don't remember it being that way before. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. Once I toasted it up, though, it was almost like a banana bagel - crispy on the outer edges and chewy in the middle. The Hubby wasn't a big fan (he said it  tasted gluten-free, which I don't think it did at all), but I thought it was great. I am going to try to make a lighter version, though, just not sure how quite yet. 

I see banana bread in my future (again)...there ARE bananas in my fridge...

Kelly