Today has been one of those cold rainy winter days, perfect for spending time in the kitchen. About an hour ago the rain switched over to snow, and it feels good to be snug and warm inside with the scent of cinnamon, vanilla, and mace lingering in the air. I made a family favorite, my spiced banana bread. As we were demolishing the warm treat, it was decided that it’s more like a coffee cake than bread, and that I should start baking it in a cake pan instead of a loaf pan. We also speculated that it might be even better if I topped it with some of the oatmeal crumble that I normally use as a fruit crisp topping.
I thought today would be a good day to give another maple syrup recipe. Bart informed me he’s getting close to finished with the sugaring season, and enough syrup has been bottled that we can start selling it. Ordering has been enabled on his website, so come and get it!
As usual, I tried to use as many fresh, local, organic, or homemade ingredients as possible. I had a couple of overly ripe organic bananas, my fresh homemade sour cream, maple syrup Bart made, eggs from the neighbors, organic vanilla beans, organic flour, wheat germ and bran. A little side note on the eggs: I’ve decided to start keeping my own laying hens again this summer. I’ve decided to keep Delawares, a heritage breed on the critical endangered list. I’ve also located a source for organic non-GMO feed. More to come on that subject in a couple of months or so.
Spiced Maple Banana Bread
2 bananas
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
Vanilla specks scraped from 1/2 bean (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
2 cups flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mace
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour a 9×13 cake pan or a couple of 7×3 loaf pans.
Mash banana into total submission in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add sour cream, butter, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla specks. Beat until thoroughly blended. In a separate bowl blend together remaining dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just moistened. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Related Posts
February 21, 2011 Maple Bread Pudding
March 10, 2012 Honey Whole Wheat Bread and a Few Bunny Trails
July 28, 2011 Panzanella Salad
February 20, 2011 Maple Sugar Camp 2011
July 22, 2011 Watermelon Margarita Granita
Tags: banana, bread, maple syrup
Ooooooh that looks delicious! I’m so jealous that you have access to sugaring. Maple syrup might be one of my very favorite things in this world – grade B all the way! – but I have gotten less than a cup from the three backyard maple trees I tapped this year. Too late, I suppose. 🙁 I hope you manage to get out to the sugar camp and take lots of pictures of the sugaring process!
In other news, I’ve got a little surprise for you over here! http://twocatpots.com/?p=2187 😀
That’s so very kind of you! Sometimes I wonder if anyone besides my family actually reads this stuff 🙂 Like you, I stay up way too late, and tonight I’m dealing with an inconvenient bout of insomnia. We started off with a couple of backyard trees ourselves. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to get a single gallon of syrup, and there are many factors that will effect how much sap you get from a tree (i.e. is the tree mature enough, does it have a good crown, weather/temperature conditions).