over ripe bananas

[crisgal]

does anyone have a foolproof easy recipe for banana bread or muffins?
I am rubbish at baking and thought the kids may enjoy having a go.
thanks x

[Clanad]

We've used this one for years here in the U.S.

3 ripe or overripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg
4 TBL butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 325� (F). Grease & flour an 8" loaf pan. In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter & vanilla. Beat until thoroughly mixed. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda & salt. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mxiture just until blended. Pour & scrape the batter into the prepared (sprayed if it's a non-stick loaf pan) pan. Bake 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack

(If you have more bananas, freeze them with the skins on. Just put them in a freezer bag. They'll keep a long time eventhough the skins turn black)

[crisgal]

thanks clanad, i'm not sure how much an american cup is!

[crisgal]

sorry about this clanad - i'm not a thick as i sound today - honest!
Is it plain or self raising flour?
x

[Clanad]

Quite alright, crisgal... it's what you would call self rising flour. From watching this site for quite a while, I take it you Brits have flour that's called "All-purpose", but it's what we would normally call "Plain". Here, most cooks use only 'self rising' The way to tell the difference is the 'self-rising will bubble in water or fizz if you put just a little in your mouth. This is because it already has the baking powder mixed in.... an American cup is 8.3 British fl. ounces or 237 ml.

Here's a site to convert all measurements that might help:

http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/cooking.htm

Good luck on your attempts!

[crisgal]

thanks for taking the time to write all that!
I made the muffins and they are lovely - but very strong!
I didn't realise how the banana flavour intensifies on cooking!
My oven packed in though, half way through my baking day
:(
At least we have the muffins
Thanks again x

[Clanad]

I'm glad to hear that it worked for you... If the taste is too bananay (is that a word?) perhaps you could cut down one half of one of the fruits. Of course there's quite a bit of difference in the size of bananas, perhaps your's were large ones. For something a little different next time, try substituting the same amount of almond flavoring for the vanilla...

Good cooking!

[jabe]

1,120g Butter
2k Sugar
12 Eggs
2,360g Bananas
4tsp Vanilla extract
2k Flour
8tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1k Walnuts - roughly chopped
1tbsp mixed spice

Method:

1. Melt butter, then beat with sugar.
2. Mix in bananas and eggs
3. Mix in vanilla
4. Sieve flour, bicarbonate of soda and spice. Mix in with the walnuts
5. Bake at 160�c, in greased and lined gastro trays.

[cfab]

Banana Bread.....the only recipe I'll ever use:
http://www.cherskitchen.com/recipes/breads/ban ana_bread.php