Hummingbird Bakery Banana Bread

When I saw a lone, spotted banana ripening away in my office fruit basket, untouched and ignored by everybody else, I jumped on it. Overriped bananas? Yes please! It means only one thing -- banana bread time!

I've been wanting to make the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook's recipe for banana bread for a long time. Well, specifically, ever since I made the cookbook's Banana and Chocolate cupcakes. I fell in love with the Hummingbird Bakery's banana cake recipe, which uses ground cinnamon and ginger to complement the cake's banana flavor. Cinnamon and bananas was a common enough combination, sure, but adding ground ginger was something pretty new to me. I loved it. The additional ginger was subtle and enhanced the ripened banana's caramel-y flavor.

I was especially excited to see that the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook's banana bread recipe basically contained the same ingredients as their cupcakes. I could have that same delicious cinnamon-ginger-banana flavor from their cupcakes... but in loaf form!

Okay, fine, cupcakes are more aesthetically pleasing than loaves, sure -- you caught me there. At the end of the day, it just really makes me feel better eating banana bread and not banana cupcakes for breakfast.

When making this recipe, be sure to use an incredibly ripe banana -- the really soft kind with black, spotted dots that nobody wants to eat anymore. The riper your banana, the more intense and caramelly the banana flavor of the bread will be. I topped my banana bread off with some leftover orange-sugar from my Dutch Baby pancake, but a citrus glaze could also work wonders.

The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook's Banana Bread Recipe

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Ingredients

Special Equipment

• a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan, generously greased and dusted with flour (I used Wilton's)

For the Banana Bread

• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 scant cup mashed banana
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

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Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 325 (F).
   


2. Put the sugar and eggs in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat until well incorporated.
   


3. Once the sugar and egg mixture is light and fluffy, beat in the mashed banana.
   


4. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger to the sugar mixture. Mix it thoroughly until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the egg mixture.
   


5. Pour in the melted butter and beat until all the ingredients are well mixed.
   


6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth over using a rubber spatula.
   


7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool slightly in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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