Recipe: Banana Cinnamon Chip Bread

This bread was eaten by the kids and their friends so quick that I barely got a picture of it.  Like all banana breads it was easy to make, very moist, yet had a real kick of cinnamon from the chips.  What a nice flavour combination this was.

I found this recipe over at Recipe Girl. where her recipes and photography will inspire you.  She has lots of options for entertaining and a whole page dedicated to it.  She's also auditioning to host her own cooking show on Oprah and you can see her audition tape and vote here... (wait until you see her awsome kitchen!).

CINNAMON CHIP BANANA BREAD
from Recipe Girl

1½ cups mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
¼ cup melted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
handful of cinnamon baking chips (or any other kind of chips)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 5×8-inch loaf pan.

Mix bananas, butter, sugars, egg and vanilla in medium bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just until flour is incorporated. Stir in a handful of desired flavor of chips.

Pour into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle a few more chips on top of the batter. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

 Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out loaf onto rack to cool completely.  Yield: 1 loaf

Cooking Tips
*Sub 1/2 whole wheat flour if you’d like.
**Use any flavor chip that you wish, but the cinnamon chips are quite delicious!

Printable Recipe

Enjoy!

from the book "A Hole Is To Dig"

by Ruth Krauss

pictures by Maurice Sendak

1952, Harper & Row

Recipe: Cinnamon-Sugar Bread (Bread Machine)

Do you love toast with cinnamon-sugar topping?  Then you'll love this!  As any bread machine bread is, this is too simple to make because you throw the ingredients in the machine, turn it on, then a couple hours later you have beautiful homemade bread!  We love it toasted with butter, but it's also perfect plain with butter.

Tip for cutting this bread is to let it cool completely, then cut with an electric knife.

CINNAMON SUGAR BREAD (BREAD MACHINE)
from RecipeZaar

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

3 cups bread flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons yeast

Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer.

Bake using the sweet bread setting if your machine has it.  If not, use white bread setting.

When the bread is done, remove from the machine and let sit on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. If it sticks, just loosen the sides with a pliable, plastic spatula and it should slip out easily.

This makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf that rose really nicely.

Check the dough about 5, 10 minutes into the kneading cycle; if you squeeze a good amount of the dough between your thumb and fingers and it seems a bit moist, and some dough sticks to your fingers, it should be just right; if not, adjust with water or flour accordingly.
 
For a printable version of this recipe go here.
 
 

"Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays" at New Nostalgia
My blog friend Amy has started a new link party called "Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays" over at her gorgeous site New Nostalgia.  Every Tuesday you can post a link for what you've marked off of your "procrastination" list.  This could be something simple like "made the beds today" or a bigger job like "cleaned out the garage".  You decide, post it, then link up your post.
 

For my part, I finally started to read "Julie and Julia" last night.  This has been sitting on my bedside table for over a month.  I even rented the movie last week but am going to return it without watchin it and read the book first like I initally wanted to do.  I finished the first chapter and laughed out loud at least a couple times as her hilarious writing.  Thanks for the inspiration Amy :)
 
Now, go have a look at what everyone else has accomplished and maybe you'll get inspired too!
 
Enjoy!  Sarah

from the book "The Busy ABC"
Illustrated by Elois Wilkin
1950 Whitman Publishing

Recipe: Honey-Banana Bread

I've been making alot of banana bread lately as I'm still cleaning out my freezer after participating in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge. We buy our banana's from Sam's Club in huge bunches as they're usually under $2/bunch. After they turn dark I freeze them and save them for baking. Needless to say, there was probably 4 bunches in my freezer to get used up.

I love this Honey-Banana Bread as it uses honey in lieu of sugar. Depending on how moist your banana's are will adjust your cooking time but it's usually 50-60 minutes in a 350 degree oven.




This recipe comes from the Southern Living 30 Years of Our Best Recipes cookbook which I purchased from an estate sale a few years ago. I love the recipes in the book and have tried many of them and flagged my favourites such as Garlic Shrimp, Lobster Newburg, Zucchini Bread.

HONEY-BANANA BREAD
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used organic salted butter)
3/4 cup honey (try to always use local honey)
2 large eggs
1 cups mashed ripe banana (about 2 bananas)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (I skipped this as I used salted butter)
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted (I used chopped walnuts)

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer in a large mixing bowl; add honey, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add banana and mix well.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; stir in pecans. Add to butter mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon batter into a lightly greased and floured 9x5" loafpan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Shield with aluminum foil, if necessary. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan, and cool completely on wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf.

Recipe: Basic Bread Techniques

Baking your first loaf of bread can be intimidating. Previously, I wrote about a great no-knead brown batter bread, however, I also wanted to try "the real deal" from scratch. My bread maker was inconsistent with how the bread would turn out and it always seemed too spongy and fluffy for sandwhiches.

The recipe and tips below are detailed and easy to follow. I've made about 20 successful loaves so far so I thought the recipe was worth writing about. I received this recipe years ago from a community center when I lived in Toronto. I now make this recipe as our everyday bread every second day or so... it's that easy!

BASIC BREAD TECHNIQUES

Prepare yeast: Take the yeast you need for your recipe, and sprinkly it on top of war water (105-115F - just a little warmer than body temperature). Water which is too cold won't "wake up" the yeast, and water which is too hot will kill it. If it doesn't seem to be reacting to the water at all, it probably isn't OK to use. Some people add a little sweetener - what you want to avoid at this stage is salet, which will kill the yeast.

Mix the dough: There are several different ways to do this - a simple one which works is mixing together the liquids, using water which is quite warm, adding half the dry ingredients to get a soupy mix, adding the yeast, and then the rest of the dry ingredients, including the salt.

Knead: Put the flour in front of you on a well-floured board. Push down and away on it - use your whole body! Fold it in half, pulling the back over the front. Turn it a quarter and repeat. Keep the board floured - the dough will absorb it. Knead unti lthe dough is elastic, smooth, and a little shiny.

Rising: Put the kneaded dough into an oiled bowl. Cover it with a warm damp cloth and put it in a warm place away from drafts. Let it rise until about twice its original size. It's ready when it collapses quickly when you push into it.

Punch down: Turn the dough back onto the kneading board and push it down, kneading it again a few times.

Proof: Shape the dough into the right size for your pan. Put it in an oiled pan, and put the pan in a warm place and cover it lightly. Let the bread rise until it's about double in size - if it "overproofs" it will collapse or flow over the edges of the pan, and you have to punch it down again. When it is proofed enough gently push with a finger should leave a mark in the dough.

Bake: Put the bread in a preheated (usually 350) oven. It usually takes about 40 minutes to bake. It's done if it sounds hollow when you take it out of the pan and tap on the bottom. Turn it out of the pan and let it cool on the rack.

Basic White or Brown Bread

1/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon yeast

1 cup hot water

1 tablespoon oil (I use canola)

1 tablespoon honey or sugar

3 cups flour (I use 2 white, 1 whole wheat)

1 teaspoon salt

Put the warm water in a small bowl and spinkle the yeast on top. Put the hot water in a large bowl and add the oil and honey or sugar. Mix in 1 cup flour, then the yeast mix, then the rest of the flour and the salt.

Knead the mix on a floured board, then oil the bowl and put the dough back in. Let it rise in a warm place (I use the microwave) until it is about twice as big. Punch it down, put it in an oiled panand let it rise again. Bake it in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool on a wire rack completely, slice with an electric knife, and place in ziplock bag. Makes 1 loaf, lasts 3-4 days if kept in cool dark place like a bread box.

So, how about you? Do you have any favourite bread recipes? If so, link your recipe in the comments section below and I'll give it a try! Thanks for sharing :)