January 4, 2010 - 8:11pm
Rose Levy Beranbaum's Banana Feather Bread
I was inspired by a Banana bread featured on farine-mc.com (link: http://www.farine-mc.com/search/label/Banana). This lady makes loaves that are works of art!
This humble loaf is a single recipe of Rose Levy Beranbaum's Banana Feather Bread, and when I slashed the top I tried a slight, reversed S-curve - to see what might happen.
I thought the result looked kind of like a banana!
We are looking forward to toasting and tasting.
Regards,
breadsong
Comments
Whenever I read the blurbs for yeasted banana breads, they all state that the flavour of banana disappears. Let us know if this happens to you.
In fact, the other day, I added TWO bananas to my yeasted chocolate bread, because I wanted to maintain the taste of banana. Nope. None there - but it sure rose like stink! ;)
The slash really does look like a banana! How fun! I've been meaning to try this loaf- I have the book here from the library. Thanks for reminding me.
Marni
I got inspired by Farine's blog, too, and made this bread. It is hands down the BEST bread I ever made!!!!!
The banana flavor pretty much does disappear, the crumb is truly feather light with just the right amount of moisture, and it tastes great. If you follow Rose's suggestion to toast it and eat it with lemon curd, you will find it nearly impossible to stop eating this bread!
I liked this bread so much I just made it in loaf form for my kids' every day sandwich loaf. I'm hoarding ripe bananas in the freezer. And sneaking slices whenever I think I can get away with it.
One caveat, especially if you are baking a free form loaf instead of in a pan, the oven temperature in the recipe was much too hot and the bread baked much too quickly. I did my sandwich loaves at 350 with no steam, and they were fine.
Help, the bread is calling my name!
Enjoy!
How was it?
Hello and thank you to everyone for your kind comments!
We tried the bread this morning, lightly toasted. I could taste a little bit of banana in the bread and it certainly had a nice banana aroma. I loved the texture of this bread - nice and light.
I'm very grateful to Rose Levy Beranbaum for her research, writing, and instruction and for all of the wonderful things we've been able to taste because of her recipes!
regards,
breadsong
Here's one of the loaves:
Sorry for the bad lighting, this is the only decent picture. I doubled this, and the first loaf is gone. I haven't tried it, but it has a very faint banana scent. My son raved over it, but couldn't identify the mystery ingredient.
Here's a crumb shot:
I found it to be a little too springy, I don't want to say rubbery, but it has bounce-back when I cut it. Maybe I did something wrong. I'll have to try it at lunch to form my final opinion.
Always good to try new things!
Marni
Hi Marni, your loaf looks really good and the crumb looks about the same as my loaf. I've got more bananas ripening and hope to bake this bread again this weekend - a nice thing to look forward to.
Regards, breadsong
but used a sourdough starter and contrary to the recipe on Farine's site I substituted 25% of the all purpose flour with bread flour, used butter in stead of almond oil and omitted the flour blanket on poolish step (didn't see the point of it, just opted for a mix and prolonged fermentation. For the honey I chose strongly scented chestnut blossom honey.
I mixed energetically on stand 2 for about 8 minutes, the dough will come out quite sticky.
The end result was very tasty indeed, the banana flavour was not overwhelming but I certainly wouldn't say it's virtually absent either, just a delicate, nicely balanced flavour that goes very well with the chestnut honey. Texture wise it held the middle ground between bread and something more akin to an airy cake. It's a keeper.
Next time I bake it I'll reduce the AP flour a bit more and substitute with chestnut flour.
Hi Xenophon,
Oh, your bread sounds really lovely, made with sourdough, butter, and chestnut blossom honey...
If you like banana bread made with sour, you might like this bread of Shiao-Ping's, too:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14432/banana-pain-au-levain
I hope you like the chestnut flour substitution, and happy baking!
:^) breadsong