Banana Bread with Fresh Mango

Recently I not only bought too many bananas and then, as they got brown spots and no one would eat them I had to think about using for banana bread, I also bought too many mangoes. I mixed some with chicken for salad and for smoothies and ice cream and so on.

But there were still some left.

So I baked a banana bread WITH mango.

It was tender, moist, sweet and absolutely perfect with a smoothie. But you can have some with coffee or tea.

If you have leftover fruit, and even if you don’t try this one:

Banana Bread with Fresh Mango

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

3 medium very ripe bananas

1/4 cup coconut milk, almond milk or other milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped fresh mango

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”´5”´3” loaf pan. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set it aside. Beat the sugar and vegetable oil with a handheld or electric mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Mash the bananas and add them to the sugar mixture. Beat thoroughly until the ingredients are well blended. Add the flour mixture, stirring only enough to moisten the dry ingredients and blend them in. Gently stir in the milk, vanilla extract and mango. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a cake rack.

Banana Bread with Ginger and Cranberries

I wish some publisher would contact me about doing a Banana Bread Cookbook. Because I have enough good recipes to fill a book.

Well, banana breads and also cakes, muffins and so on.

I don’t actually eat any of this stuff because I am allergic to bananas, but I always buy bananas because I like how they smell and also because my husband says he is going to eat them but then never does. Or he eats one and I’m left with 4 or 5 more.

I do have tasters though. They tell me whether the recipe is good. And I give whatever banana baked thing I’ve made away to cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital at our every-two-week Tea sponsored by the local Hadassah group. I’ve been getting great reviews from everyone.

The one I sent this week is a dairy-free version, made with Earth Balance Buttery Spread and Oat milk (you could substitute coconut milk and, if there’s no nut allergy, almond milk).

I made this cake two ways, once plain and once with dried cranberries and chopped crystallized ginger. Everyone preferred the second one. Here’s the recipe:

Banana Bread with Ginger and Cranberries

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread

1/4 cup coconut oil

1-1/2 cups sugar

4 medium very ripe bananas, mashed

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup oat milk

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. Mix the flour, salt, ginger and baking soda together in a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the buttery spread, coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the bananas and blend in thoroughly. Add the eggs and beat well. Stir in the oat milk and blend thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and beat until the batter is well blended. Fold in the cranberries and crystallized ginger. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about one hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one bread, serving 16-18

Dairy Free Banana Bread with Coconut Milk

Another day, another banana bread.

Because, as everyone who reads this blog knows, I buy bananas but can’t eat them because I am allergic to them but love having them around the house because they smell so wonderful and besides, my husband Ed says he likes them and does, occasionally, eat one.

But most are left over so I have dozens of recipes for Banana Bread. My kids love Banana Bread but mostly I give it away, often for the bi-monthly Tea our local Hadassah group holds for cancer patients and caregivers at Stamford Hospital.

Recently, one of the patients, who has been taking chemotherapy and said nothing tasted good to him, mentioned that my Banana Bread was the best thing he had eaten in a long time. He also said he appreciated how soft and moist it was.

I think about that a lot. How a simple piece of cake can make someone so pleased. 

So next time I am sending this version. I wanted to make a Banana Bread without shortening, butter or any dairy. I used Earth Balance natural buttery spread plus coconut oil for the fat and coconut milk as the liquid.

It’s a simple recipe, but absolutely soft and moist. 

So, I will be able to enjoy the fragrance of the bread as it bakes, even if I can’t taste it. And I hope the patients at Stamford Hospital will love how it tastes and that it makes their day a little brighter and better.

Banana Bread

2-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 cup Earth Balance natural buttery spread

1/4 cup coconut oil

1-1/3 cups sugar

3 large or 4 small very ripe bananas, mashed

3 large eggs, slightly beaten (or use 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce or plain soy yogurt as a vegan substitute)

1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch (8-cup) bundt pan. Mix the flour, salt, ginger and baking soda together in a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the buttery spread, coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the bananas and blend in thoroughly. Add the eggs and beat well. Stir in the coconut milk and blend thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and beat until batter is well blended. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about one hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes one bread, serving 16-18

Banana Bread with Coconut Oil and Coconut Milk

I used to think that I made banana bread because I always bought too many bananas and then had to do something with the leftover fruit that got too soft and brown to eat as is.

But I finally realized I buy too many bananas because I want to make banana bread.

The folks at the CIA — the Central Intelligence Agency, I mean, not the Culinary Institute of America — should learn to bake this because the aroma in the room with one of these in the oven is the kind of hypnotic thing that could pry information from prisoners.

Banana Bread with Coconut Oil and Coconut Milk

2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup coconut oil
1-1/4 cups sugar
4 large very ripe bananas, mashed
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch (8-cup) bundt pan. Mix the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda together in a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the shortening, coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the bananas and blend in thoroughly. Add the eggs and coconut milk and beat well. Add the flour mixture and beat until batter is well blended. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one bread, serving 16-18

Banana Bread with Coconut Oil, Chocolate Chips and Kefir

When life gives you bananas, make Banana Bread.

I do it all the time because I always buy too many bananas. Ed eats a couple of them but the rest get brown and spotty and then no one will eat them.

But everyone loves Banana Bread.

But everyone also knows I can’t leave a recipe alone. I like to tweak and tinker and see if a new version is even better than the last one.

My newest recipe includes coconut oil, because I read that it might be healthy. I had some kefir hanging out in the fridge, so I added that too, for even more moisture. And off course, why not add chocolate chips? 

Banana Bread with Coconut Oil, Chocolate Chips and Kefir

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

2 large eggs

3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup kefir

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 ounces chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a bowl and set it aside. Beat the sugar, vegetable oil and coconut oil with a handheld or electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the bananas and beat the mixture to blend the ingredients thoroughly. Add the flour mixture, stirring only enough to blend in the dry ingredients. Add the kefir, vanilla extract and chocolate chips and stir them in. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for one hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan 15 minutes, then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one loaf. 

Banana-Coconut Bread

What to do with leftover bananas?

I’ve become an expert at that. Because I love to buy bananas. I love how they look, especially when they are light yellow with green tips so I know they are firm inside and perfectly sweet. I never buy any that are dark yellow or that have brown freckles.

I used to love to eat bananas too. Plain or with sour cream or yogurt. And especially, in Banana Cream Pie, which I can only fantasize about now.

Because I became allergic to bananas.

How is it possible to be allergic to bananas?

I don’t know but I am.

So now I can only buy them, and gaze upon them longingly and hope that my husband Ed will eat them, which he does, but never as many as I buy. There are always leftovers.

I now have more recipes for Banana Bread than anyone and I am working on some for Banana Muffins.

If you have leftover bananas, try this recipe. It makes a good snack, or dessert (maybe add ice cream or fudge sauce). 

Banana-Coconut Bread

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup orange or ginger marmalade or apricot jam

3 large very ripe bananas

3 large eggs, beaten

1 cup packaged coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (about 8 cups). Mix the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until well blended. Add the marmalade and bananas and blend them in thoroughly. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture and blend it in thoroughly. Fold in the coconut. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one bread serving 12-16