Banana Bread

I picked up this recipe from the net. The problem was that I couldn’t find brown sugar here and instead of home made buttermilk (I didn’t want to wait for M to make some) I substituted it with Amul Buttermilk (which is spiced butter milk) and I didn’t add the salt which is given in the recipe. It turned out very nice. And since I halved the ingredients from the original recipe, I reduced the baking time as well. What’s given here is what I made -

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup soft butter (since I was short on butter I made up the rest with ghee and didn’t really feel any difference)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (again since I didn’t have brown sugar I substituted it with Palm candy, to make a total of ½ a cup of sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 cups all-purpose flour (maida)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (which I didn’t add as the buttermilk I used was already salted)
• 1 teaspoon baking power
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (in addition I added some more nuts and raisins on my own and it turned out pretty decent)

Topping:

• 1 sliced banana
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

o In a large bowl peel the bananas and break them into small pieces. Use a masher and mash the bananas. Set aside.

o In a separate bowl cream the soft butter, white sugar and brown sugar all together with a wooden spoon. Add in the beaten eggs and mix till smooth. (I found that after 5 min it was still lumpy and I didn’t have the patience so I put it in the mixer grinder/ blender and gave it a beating)

o Add in the buttermilk and vanilla. Continue to mix together till well combined. Add in the mashed bananas, then mix.

o In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Using a wire whisk mix together. Pour the flour mixture into the liquid. Mix together till just combined. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

o Pour batter into a well greased 9x 5 loaf pan (I used the thumb rule of filling up half of the baking dish giving enough space for the bread to rise). Peel a banana and slice into pieces. Place the banana slice down the middle of the loaf. Top the banana slices with chopped walnuts. Bake in a 350 degree (180°C) oven for 30 minutes (I used my LG microwave in the Convection function). Bake until a skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the banana bread to sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool on a wire rake.

Note: After a long time of experimenting with using different proportions of whole wheat flour (atta), we tried using only atta (whole wheat flour) and it turned out great.