Cooking Experiment

I had five overripe bananas begging to be made into banana bread, so I went to do exactly that tonight.  Normally I use this recipe, sans nuts.

I noticed there were only four eggs, which is fewer than six.  So I looked for alternate recipes that required only two eggs, meaning four for a double batch.

I found this recipe, which intriguingly substitutes cream cheese for milk and oil, as well as altering the amount of other ingredients.

Thinking that I didn’t want to use 16 ounces of soft cream cheese out of the 24 on hand, I looked at the two and thought about how I might roll my own.  Eventually I decided I could sacrifice part of the banana and just make a single with the normal recipe, despite the intriguing cream cheese element.  Then I proceeded to make a double batch by more or less combining one batch of each recipe in a single bowl as a mad cooking experiment.

So it went something like:

5 soft bananas, thoroughly smooshed (probably 2 to 2 1/2 or so cups)
4 eggs
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 tsp vanilla
A glop of milk, probably amounting to 1/4 cups or so
A few tablespoons of butter, melted (about 4; usually in the original recipe I mix butter and Crisco and it’s probably more than this was)
8 oz tub cream cheese, softened to less than room temp in the microwave - should have been softer but was hurrying
1 2/3 cup or a tad more sugar
4 Cups or a tad more Bisquick

Mixed the soft and liquid stuff in with the bananas thoroughly.  Mixed in the sugar.  Mixed in the Bisquick.

Poured it equally into two greased bread pans and baked 50 minutes at 350, at which point toothpicks proclaimed it done.

Tasted it a while later and overall liked it, probably better than the usual, but had to puzzle out the flavor.  It has tang.  It’s very strongly banana, moister than normal, and has a tangy flavor like banana baby food.  The reason the flavor seemed odd is because it bordered on tasting like there was too much baking soda, which of course wasn’t one of the ingredients, apart from the degree to which it’s inherent in Bisquick.  But it’s actually a tangy banana flavor, probably accentuated by the cream cheese interaction.  Very cool.  Using cream cheese in the banana bread reminded me of my use of sour cream in gravy.

This also cooked differently than I am used to seeing.  It rose a lot and looked beautifully light and fluffy, then finished with a lighter top, much more appealing looking than my usual.  Where it touched the pan is dark, but not overcooked, I suspect from my greasing the pans.

I’d want to try the second recipe playing it straight sometime, or experiment some more, but overall I’m pleased.

1. ok, so what’s the GF version?

   Posted by sarahk  on  01/13  at  03:37 PM  from  south of hell
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