Monastery Banana Bread
Assorted desserts
My son and I were at the Atammayatarama Buddhist Monastery early in the morning one day last week. We had volunteered to water over 20 newly planted trees surrounding the new meditation hall. Later in the morning I also offered food to three Thai monks. They were Southern Thai dishes such as stir-fried spicy stinky been with beef, Thai chili dip, Thai yellow curry rice and fried eggs. Since I am familiar with the kitchen, I also became a temporary helper there for the day. I helped visitors to properly place foods they had brought from home and to properly present them to the monks. At the end of the day, there were more than a dozen fully ripe bananas that had not been eaten. Waste not, I offered to take them home and return them to the Monastery as banana bread.
My banana cake recipe
This is my banana cake recipe from Thailand. I modified it into a quick and easy recipe for banana bread.
My banana bread recipe has long been on my list to share with you, but it never seemed to work out to do so until now. First, I found my 28-year-old recipe notebook which is always misplaced and hard to find. Second, I had the free time to make banana bread as well as a good reason for making it. The next day I made 4 loaves with one single recipe. It is a perfect recipe to bake once and share with friends and families as hostess gifts or for a community event.
Banana Bread-Cake – ขนมปังเค้กกล้วยหอม
This recipe makes an oil-based cake or quick bread that is baked in a loaf pan like a bread. Since vanilla and butter taste so good with bananas, I kept them in my recipe. I used olive oil because it is a healthy fat, but you can use any vegetable oil. There are no nuts in this recipe because I prefer it without. This recipe is light, somewhere between banana bread and banana cake. If I wanted to make a banana cake, I would keep the recipe the same but add one more cup of sugar, bake it in a cake pan, and then frost it with my dreamy coconut frosting recipe. But since I baked it in a loaf pan, let’s call it banana bread.
Banana Bread
Khanom Cake Kluey Horm
ขนมเค้กกล้วยหอม
This recipe makes four loaves of banana bread with a cake-like texture. It is unbelievably easy. Just stir the ingredients together and bake with fun. Enjoy it plain or with the frosting. If you wish to have it plain but sweeter, you can add one more cup of sugar or garnish it with frosting.
Yield: 4 loaves
7 cups cake flour 1 tablespoon baking soda 2 tablespoons baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons salt 2 sticks butter, melted ¾ cup olive oil 10 to 12 ripe banana, peeled, sliced and chopped 3 1/4 cups white sugar 8 eggs 2 tablespoons vanillaPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare loaf pans with oil and coat with flour, then set aside.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt twice.
In a large bowl or 6-quart pot, stir butter, olive oil, banana and sugar together until blended. Then stir in eggs and vanilla until creamy. Add flour mixture 1/2 cup at the time, stirring after each addition until mixed. It will yield about 16 cups of batter. Divide equally into 4 loaf pans. Baking time is about 50 to 60 minutes. Bake without disturbing the cake for 45 minutes and then check the cake with a toothpick or wooden skewer; when it comes out clean, remove the pans from the oven. Let them rest on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove banana bread from the pans.
© 2012 Pranee Khruasanit Halvorsen I Love Thai cooking Pranee teaches Thai Cooking classes in the Seattle area. Her website is: I Love Thai cooking.com
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