Banana Bread Bakeoff

My most memorable banana bread moment was the first time I went to Sydney to visit DD. We had banana bread at a cafe at Universal Studios and it was lovely. I don't like banana breads with nuts or chunky bits and this one was a revelation such as I've never tasted before. It was smooth and consistant, toasted and nicely coated with butter.

Ever since then, I have been searching for a banana bread that could rival it and I've only ever found its like at Gloria Jeans in the BP Service Centre in Coffs Harbour. Living nowhere near Coffs, I haven't had the opportunity to indulge as much as I'd like to.

Then the wonderful Not Quite Nigella announced her Banana Bread Bakeoff! There couldn't be a better opportunity to explore the wonderful banana bread recipes and hopefully find something that could live up to my extremely high banana bread standards.

I went out and stocked up on bananas, butter, flour and sugar and narrowed down my selections to four recipes. I was going to do Banana Bread: Variations on a Theme, but fate intervened in the form of a banana bread that will spoil me for any other banana bread. This banana bread deserves to be entered into NQN's bakeoff, my very first blogging event!

Many of the recipes I chose were extremely simple, with a minimum of ingredients. This recipe, a Sour Cream Banana Bread I found on Recipezaar, is no exception. Baking911 states that sour cream contains acids which tenderize the gluten in the recipe, producing a fine crumb and sour cream makes them moist and springy. A fine crumb, moist and springy sounds like a perfect banana bread to me.

This banana bread tastes great fresh out of the oven as it is, it tastes great the next day toasted with a little butter AND it even freezes well. The banana taste is delightfully prominent without being overpowering, the bread isn't too sweet and it melts in your mouth. I highly recommend it!


Sour Cream Banana Bread
from Charishma Ramchandani on Recipezaar

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mashed banana (I used three medium bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream

Grease one large loaf pan and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.

Add the dry ingredients, bananas and sour cream and mix well.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.