Banana Bread

I have tried many banana bread recipes in the past and was not able to find the perfect one. A while ago, I saw a recipe from 偽主婦ki琪’s blog and she mentioned that it came from her brother who is a pastry chef at a 5 star hotel. I made a big batch using this recipe last weekend and I don’t think I’ll look much further for another one. This banana bread is moist and delicious with loads of banana flavor! As opposed to the other banana bread recipes I’ve used, this one uses the muffin method by melting the butter instead of creaming which gives a dense and chewy texture. The original recipe uses only granulated sugar. By the time I was onto the fifth loaf, I ran out of white sugar so I did a little experiment by substituting half of it with brown sugar. We sampled both versions, the one with brown sugar is more moist and rich in flavor and the one with white sugar is more dense and light in flavor. Both were very good, so I guess it just comes down to a matter of preference of what you like more. 

偽主婦ki琪’s blog has step-by-step instructions with pictures in Chinese, but for those who can’t read Chinese, I’ve translated the recipe for you here. Thank you 偽主婦ki琪 for the amazing recipe – it’s definitely a keeper!

Ingredients: 
2 1/2 ripe bananas (偽主婦ki琪’s recipe asks for 2 bananas but Mr. Bear requested for more so I threw in an extra half.) 
100g unsalted butter 
100g white sugar (or 50g white sugar + 50g brown sugar) 
3 egg yolks 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
1 tablespoon rum 100g plain flour 
50g bread flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
2 egg whites 

Method: 
1. Preheat oven to 170C. 
2. Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl until well-blended. Add in the lemon juice and mix well. 
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. 
4. Add sugar, butter, egg yolks, rum, and vanilla extract into the banana mixture and whisk them together. 
5. Add sifted dry ingredients into the mixture to form the batter. 
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. 
7. Add 1/3 of the egg white into the batter and mix well, then fold in the rest of the egg white. 
8. Lightly butter bread loaf pans and pour the banana mixture in. 9. Bake at 170C for 30-40 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The tops of the loaves should be a nice toasty brown. 
10. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.