Banana Tea Bread

I have been looking over The Essential NYT Cookbook, edited by Amanda Hesser. I was in a rush before Shabbos, so I opted for two quick cakes: the Amazon cake and the Banana Tea Bread (p. 655).

Both were delicious.

I tweaked the banana bread a bit, partly according to the advice in the headnote to the recipe, and partly based on my running low on vegetable oil. I ended up using 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and it was quite nice. The small amount of olive oil added a very subtle but distinct flavor which made the tea bread more interesting.

My favorite banana bread is still a clone of Entenmann’s crumb topped chocolate chip banana loaf–I still have to post about that! But this banana bread is healthier.

Banana Tea Bread

6 ounces flour (1 1/3 cups)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4 Tbl. oil (can use part olive oil)
5 ounces sugar (2/3 cup)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed  banana (2-3 medium bananas, mashed)

Combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the oil and sugar and egg, whipping it well. Add mashed banana alternately with the dry ingredients. Put in a greased  8″x4″ loaf pan (lining the pan with parchment makes clean up easier) and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Note: original recipe called for 1/3 cup of shortening. If you want to use that, cream the sugar and shortening together until fluffy, and then add the eggs before proceeding as above.

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Tags: amazon cake, banana bread, banana cake, banana tea bread, New York Times Cookbook