Banana Bread

What will you do if you have got 2 big bunches of ripe banana (ethapazham) sitting in your kitchen, threatening to go from ripe to over-ripe to rotten within few days!! I was in complete dilemma the last 3-4 days, as my hubby who traveled to India came back with a really big bunch of plantains (lovingly packed my MIL). It is home grown, organic and all that stuff, which means you just can't throw it. While my hubby was away in India, I made a very relaxing trip to Lulu and had bought the week's grocery which included around 4 big bananas...I wasn't expecting him to come back with a 20 kg baggage full of fruits and vegetables from the backyard.

Since I had to use up all of those 11 really ripe bananas within few days, here is what I did...

Day 1 - I, along with my kids ate bananas as it is...3 gone

Day 2 - Made some pazham pori / banana fritters (post pending to be posted) - 3 gone

Day 3 - Made banana bread - 3 gone

Day 4 - Made pazham nirachathu / stuffed banana (pending post) - 2 gone

Hurray!! so I used up all of them without wasting even a li'l bit, and without my family getting bored of eating the same thing everyday..

Now coming to banana bread, I have made this n number of times before...but using Chiquita bananas. This is the first time I am using Kerala's own nethrakkaya for this...and it was super-duper delicious. Our home-taster (my son) gave a thumbs up and "Super" (which he rarely utters) after the first bite. This bread is slightly dense compared to the one using chiquitas, but the taste was incomparable. Above all its super-easy to make this. 

This is a very basic/flexible recipe, and you can make modifications as per things available in your kitchen, or as per your liking.

Ingredients

Very ripe (Kerala) banana - 3 (if using chiquitas, you'll need around 4)

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Whole wheat atta -1/2 cup (you can use only all purpose flour, or increase the amount of atta)

Sugar - 1 cup (I used Demarera sugar, you can use white, or soft brown or a mix of both)

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Butter - 1 stick / 100g, melted (you can use oil instead)

Salt - a pinch

Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius

2. Prepare a 9 x 5" loaf tin (grease and dust with flour)

3. Prepare the dry ingredients. Sieve together the wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, couple of times.

4. Melt butter in a sauce pan, and allow to cool.

5. Take the big jar of the mixer and add the chopped bananas. Puree it well in the mixie.

6. Now to the same jar, add the sugar and melted butter along with the banana puree and pulse of 3-4 times till the sugar, butter and banana are incorporated well.

7. Move the banana mixture into a bowl and slowly mix in the flour mixture until all are well incorporated.

8. Add half the amount of chocolate chips into the mixture and give a gentle mix. 

9. Pour the batter to the prepared tin and sprinkle rest of the chocolate chips on the top.

10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 min (this will depend on the size of your oven, so keep checking after about 35 min) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.