crock pot banana bread

 
Here is the direct link for: Crock Pot Banana Bread.

Why would someone even do this? Because the round shape is cute. The wonderful moistness that comes with all things 'crock pot'. No need to heat up the house by turning on the oven! And the house still smells like someone's baking banana bread.

This pin comes from the blog, Smashed Peas and Carrots. It was Maggie's, the blog's author, first attempt at making a bread in the crock pot. She is very enthusiastic and deliciously surprised how moist it turned out. She supplies a recipe and lots of photos, but making banana bread isn't a pretty sight. Sorry to say no matter what angle.

I was curious to see if any recipe would work in a crock pot. Since I already have a favorite banana bread recipe. The two recipes are fairly similar. Why not try it?

In the end, my bread isn't much to look at. It didn't rise very high. My crock pot is a large-sized one, so the bread turned out more like a cake than a loaf. Nonetheless, it was absolutely wonderful! So moist and buttery tasting. I loved it and so did my kids! As you can see from the photo half of it is gone already. We were all pleasantly surprised with the taste.

Today I am including the recipe for my favorite banana bread. It comes from the cookbook Quick Breads. I love this recipe because it uses white sugar rather than brown sugar, so the loaf is lighter, both in texture and in color. It actually looks like banana!

Golden Banana Nut Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2-3 medium-sized bananas)

1/3 cup buttermilk (I used vanilla yogurt)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. While continuing to beat, add eggs one at a time.

Stir in banana, buttermilk and walnuts. Add one-half of the flour mixture and blend thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Repeat with remaining half of flour mixture.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured (bottom and sides dusted with flour) 9-1/4 inch loaf pan. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until loaf begins to separate from the edges of the pan and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes one loaf.

The red pin award for trying something new and unusual!

I had read that you can bake breads in smaller loaf pans within your crock pot too. I want to try this and see if I can achieve a smaller, round little loaf.



Happy pinning!

7/28/2012: Update. Finished the last slice of this banana bread. It has to be the yummiest flavor EVER!! Now I just need to work on presentation, the overall shape of the loaf.

marie's banana-berry bread recipe

This entry is a little different today. It originated from a pin that lead to something so much more!

On Tuesday, June 19th, I gave you the link for my most favorite banana bread recipe as posted on Cooking Light's website: Marble-Chocolate Banana Bread. Remember I mentioned another bread, the Banana Blueberry Bread? well, I made it, sort of.

I didn't have all the ingredients, so I improvised quite a bit. In the end I invented a new recipe, I think. And I wanted to share it with you! It is so yummy and moist and it still has the banany-flavor. My family loves it, especially my husband. He actually said he could taste the granola - the nuttiness of it. I was impressed. Here's the recipe for your review:

Marie's Banana-Berry Bread

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup ground granola*

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about two)

1 cup blueberries

1/2 cup egg beaters

cooking spray

*enough organic granola cereal placed into a blender or food processor and pulverized until you have 3/4 cup total granola powder. I used Kirkland's Organic Granola with Almonds.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 1 cup flour, ground granola, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda in a large mixing bowl. Stir well to combine. Place the additional 1/4-cup of flour into a separate bowl with the blueberries. Toss to coat. Set aside. FYI, this helps keep the blueberries from completely sinking to the bottom of the bread during baking.

In another bowl, combine the oil, mashed bananas and eggs. Stir well. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir just until moist. Fold the blueberries-flour mixture into the batter.

Pour batter into a 8x4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted in the bread's center comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!

Yields 16 slices.

This gets the red pin award for cleverness on my part. After you taste it, you'll agree! and yes, I will definitely make it again!

Happy pinning!