Going BANANAS with BANANAS - Part 1 "Banana Coffee Cake"

Yes, I've been going bananas over bananas this past week!

A friend of mine brought me 3 lovely (HUGE) bunches of organic slightly browning bananas a week ago.  What a gift!  I made at least 5 different recipes with the bananas - WOWsers!  I thought I'd share with all of you my 3 top favorites.  I'll do this in 3 separate posts (part 1, part 2 and part 3).

I discovered three very important factors as I made my different banana treats.  The first being that whenever there is sour cream (or even yogurt) involved in a banana recipe you are guaranteed to have a moist result in your treat. Yummy! Secondly, I have mastered the art of "mashing bananas".  I do so with a fork in a glass Pyrex 2 cup measuring cup.  This allows me to not only have a good tool to measure my "mashed bananas" but it also gives me a hard surface -against the glass with the fork - to successfully perform the mashing.  Thirdly, I have found that I enjoy the final result of a banana treat better if I don't mash the bananas to a full puree....in other words leaving some chunks of banana is good - it allows a better consistency in the end result (that's my opinion at least).

The first banana "treaty" (as Jolie would say)  I made was a combination of two recipes - a simple banana bread and a cinnamon swirl banana bread made into a "Banana Coffee Cake".

Banana Coffee Cake

(a slightly altered recipe from The Neely's and Lovin' From my Oven)

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, at room temp

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 large very ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream (yogurt can be substituted if need be)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup chopped pecans - optional

Cinnamon/Sugar Mixture Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x9 baking dish if you'd like to make a coffee cake or if a bread is more your thing use a loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, powder and salt.

3. In a small bowl or glass Pyrex measuring cup mash the bananas with a wooden spoon or fork, leaving a bit of texture.

4. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time.  Stir in mashed banana, sour cream and vanilla - beat just until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and gently stir in nuts if you wish.  

5. Mix together your 1/3 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon for your Sugar-Cinnamon mixture.

6. Pour 1/2 of your banana batter into prepared pan than sprinkle with 1/2 of Sugar-Cinnamon mixture.....and again the banana mixture.....

.....ending with the sugar-cinnamon mixture.

7. Pop into oven and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Cool and enjoy!

Happy Banana Coffee Cake Baking!

~avril :-)

This post has been linked to...

Mommy's Kitchen

Sweet Luvin In The Kitchen