Recipe: "Banana Bread Brownies"

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have bananas getting overripe, so I decided to try out this recipe for Banana Bread Brownies.  While not identical to what I remember from growing up -- it's actually kind of bread-pudding-esque -- it is very tasty.  :D  Hard to go wrong with half a cup of cocoa powder.  This is a good thing to make if you like chocolate and have a couple of bananas giving up the ghost.

For what it's worth, I like hippie recipes, and they tend to have some common threads.  Using olive oil instead of butter, bananas or other fruit as sweetener and binder, and less or no refined sugar are examples.  This recipe uses olive oil, mashed bananas, and only 1 cup of refined sugars.  The original called for coconut sugar but I used white because that's what I have.  Also it took 27 minutes in my oven rather than 17, but that's okay.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Bookmarked that, bananas are a staple in this house, and in summer months it's hard to use them all before that start going over.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm happy I could help.

I also highly recommend the Very Banana-y Whole Wheat Banana Bread. That's my base for hippie quickbread. You can use other puree instead of the banana or applesauce, such as pumpkin. You can use different mix-ins than nuts; our favorite is dried strawberries. Add some nut butter. That sort of thing. This recipe uses 3 overripe bananas.

Re: Yay!

[siliconshaman]

Thanks! Snagged that one as well. It sounds delish!

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

If I have time, I'll probably make more of the strawberry bread to use up remaining bananas.

Re: Yay!

[siliconshaman]

Sounds like a good plan. I've been using up faded fruit in fruit curries mostly, but making bread with stuff sounds like it would be a way of getting more use out of it.

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

The more recipes you have, the easier it gets to use up whatever needs using.

Do you have recipe links for the fruit curries?

Re: Yay!

[siliconshaman]

No I don't, at least, not yet. I made them up myself you see. I should probably make a post on that.

Re: Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

You should definitely make a post about that. :D

A lot of my recipes are originals too. I try and remember to post them here.

Re: Yay!

[siliconshaman]

Posted! It's one of those one-pan whatever you've got in the cupboard recipes.

[caera_ash]

One of my favorite banana bread recipes is from the 1946 edition of The Joy of Cooking, which is really not hippie recipes, but the book does have a love of whole grain and bread flours where ap flour is often used today (for muffins, pancakes, etc) and I love the difference in filling-ness and texture that results. I hadn't even known about graham flour before I started looking through the book! I've heard a lot of mean things about western cooking at the time, and yeah there isn't a huge variety on spicing things, but main ingredients tend to be a lot more varied and creatively used than most modern cookbooks I've found. And I have yet to have a recipe come out badly even when it wasn't to everyone's taste.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Fascinating.

I love wholegrain flours. I wish there was a good source of multigrain flour -- used to be available in food co-ops or health food stores but I haven't seen any in recent years. After some hunting, we did find dark rye flour so I can make a shortbread cookie recipe with it.

[meowmensteen]

Hah! I have that edition too! I use whole wheat flour in my banana muffins too. I think the flour and bananas really compliment each other.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I agree. I use whole wheat in my banana bread.

[narya_flame]

Ooh this sounds delicious!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I was quite pleased with the results. :D It's a good way to make brownies with actual food in them.

[siberian_skys]

That sounds tasty. Anything that resembles bread pudding has my vote. :-)

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Have you ever made a savory one? We've done that with an order of tandoori chicken.

* Pull the chicken off the bones and chop it. Chop the peppers and onions. Mix those with the dry bread chunks and put them in the pan.

* Replace the sweet spice in the batter with garam masala. Pour the batter over the bread mix. Bake as usual.

Re: Well ...

[siberian_skys]

That sounds so good minus the onions.I had not heard of a savory version, Thanks for that.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Okay, the basic concept of bread pudding is dry bread chunks smothered in batter (usually made from milk and egg with flavorings, although there are substitutes). So you can put almost anything in that, and leave out whatever you don't like. Find a good basic recipe and you can riff it endlessly.

Re: Well ...

[siberian_skys]

f you ever get to go to Cody, WY, there's a famous bar, that the name is currently escaping me, has the best bread putting. They put Bourbon sauce on it. I was wondering if the sauce was combustable.

[greghousesgf]

Bananas and chocolate go great together! There's a banana chocolate chip sheet cake I've made for picnics and parties and people usually love it.
Coconut sugar's hard to get ahold of. Maybe it'd be easier if I lived in Hawaii.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Bananas and chocolate go great together! There's a banana chocolate chip sheet cake I've made for picnics and parties and people usually love it.<<

That sounds interesting.

>>Coconut sugar's hard to get ahold of. Maybe it'd be easier if I lived in Hawaii.<<

I'm sure one of the health food or international food stores around here would have it. Probably the coconut would add to the tropical flavor of this dish. But I used white sugar because that's what I had, and it worked fine.

[fyreharper]

We just finished up the latest loaf of banana bread here - I’ve discovered that if I leave out the oil and put in Even More Banana (2c mashed, altogether!) it is Even Better! Will have to wait for more bananas to need saving before I try additional variations ;)

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Interesting idea to replace oil with more bananas.

I do recommend trying dried fruit if that is something you enjoy. It absorbs moisture from the batter, rather than leaving a soggy spot like fresh fruit can.