I know, I know, I shouldn't be making so much sweets. People at work ate my cake on Wednesday and my cookies on Friday, and the roomie even brought cookies to share with coworkers because there were way too many for the two of us. I'm sure that I'll be making her bring more of my baked goods to work in the future, just so that my coworkers don't get too sick of my baking. After the three dozen cookies, I was ready to lay off sweets for awhile, but my bananas were dying. And I couldn't bear to watch them die and throw them out, so I needed to do something with them.
This banana bread recipe has been bookmarked on my Pinterest for quite some time. It's by famous pastry chef Pichet Ong, and he specializes in Asian-inspired desserts. He has a book called The Sweet Spot which I love; the recipe for condensed milk pound cake is on my repertoire and gets rave reviews every time I make it. This banana bread is similarly amazing because it's lovely, light, and incredibly moist. I will be revisiting this recipe quite frequently, or at least every time I neglect my bananas until they're too soft and freckly.
And we're off. In a bowl, beat together 5 Tbsp softened butter, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp salt.
Add in 1 cup of mashed bananas and a dash of vanilla extract. The recipe calls for baby bananas, but ain't nobody got time for that. I only had regular bananas on hand, so I just guesstimated that three small/ medium ones is about a cup (I didn't want to waste using a separate bowl to mash them up because I'm too lazy to wash extra dishes). I roughly mashed the bananas with a fork since they were already pretty soft, and then used my hand mixer to break them down even more.
Beat in an egg...
...then beat in 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp baking soda. Mix only until incorporated and definitely do not over mix so that it'll be soft and light.
Stir in 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt, I used Fage 0% Greek. The recipe says to stir in just enough so that there are white streaks, but I found chunky yogurt bits in my final baked cake. It's not as gross as it sounds, but in the future I would definitely mix the yogurt in better.
Pour into a greased pan and bake in preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes. I love my oven in this apartment because it's pretty accurate, which is a first. I can just set a timer for exactly the time stated in the recipe and then leave it alone, instead of constantly hovering in the kitchen in fear that my handiwork will be underbaked/overbaked (which is what I've always done before). I've never felt so at ease in the kitchen before, so it's a strange sensation.
Lovely. I took this out of the oven right before heading to the office and asked my roomie to eat and share. I think she invited two friends over because by the time I got home, there were three mugs in the sink and 2/3 of the bread was gone. I think it's safe to assume that they liked it, success.
(I promise my next post will be for something savory.)
Source: Pichet Ong's Banana Bread
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