Marco's Banana Bread

For two 4 x 8 x 2¼-inch (10 x 20 x 6 cm) loaf pans

  • 1 cup - minus 4 tablespoons (180g) sour cream (I like Safeway's Lucerne best)
  • 1 packed cup + 2 TBsp (190 g) brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs (or 5 oz (150 ml) egg substitute)
  • 4 TBsp granola (Honey Gone Nuts)
  • 2 bananas
  • 11/8 cup (150 g) wholewheat flour
  • 1¼ cup (150 g) white flour (Better-for-Bread or unbleached)
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 2 handfuls of raisins
  • 1 handful of shelled pecans or walnuts
  • 14-16 dried apricots
  • zest of 4-8 kumquats (optional)
  • a little butter and flour to coat the loaf pan

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C);
  2. Put about 1 tsp butter in each loaf pan;
  3. Put sour cream, sugar and salt in a large bowl, lightly mix (I use a wooden spoon throughout), then leave it alone for a few minutes (to let the sugar and salt will dissolve by itself), then stir again;
  4. Add eggs, blend in;
  5. Mix in wholewheat flour;
  6. Mash bananas, add to batter, add granola and mix;
  7. Mix in half of white flour, then put remainder on top, and baking powder on top of that (so it is still dry);
  8. Spread butter in loaf pans, dust with a little flour;
  9. Mix raisins and nuts in small bowl (I use the banana bowl);
  10. Mix remaining flour and baking powder into the batter;
  11. Add raisins and nuts, mix in;
  12. Pour batter in loaf pans (use spatula to clean out bowl), push apricots into batter at regular intervals, and push down surfacing nuts and raisins;
  13. Put in center of oven, bake for one hour and ten minutes (70 minutes);
  14. Take out of oven, stick a sharp knife or a toothpick into the center to test: it should come out dry and clean (crumbs are OK);
  15. Let it cool down in loaf pan for 10-15 minutes, then out of the pan on to a rack for further cooling.


Pushing Apricots into Batter


Ready!

Notes

I strongly recommend using a scale to accurately measure flour and sugar.
The basic recipee is 100g butter, 100g sugar, a little salt, one or two eggs, 100g flour, ½ tsp baking powder. Isn't that like pound cake?
Don't open oven door in the first 45 minutes or your cake might collapse.
It is said that fat is needed to break down the gluten in ordinary wheat flour, substituting yoghurt for butter gives a somewhat tough cake; pastry flour might work (it is low in gluten), but I find my sour cream cake works just fine with regular flour.
In a larger pan it should bake longer and slower (about 75 min at 300°F (150°C).)
Some children prefer a more basic version, without granola, raisins, nuts or apricots: use a little less sour cream and add 1 to 1½ tsp vanilla extract.

More recipees - something similar

I use one of these fine graters to zest lemons and kumquats.
They're extremely sharp, be careful not to cut into your fingers.
Also find here the kitchen scale I use.

Your Chef: Marco Schuffelen - email

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