Banana Bread

Recently I spent some time with two of my best friends from college. I do believe we three were the original stumblers - you never knew what was coming out of our college house. They are both quite health-conscious people, so we tried to make sure that the dishes were very healthy. My friend Kim found this recipe for banana bread from Technicolor Kitchen which only called for 3 tbsp of sugar and she was hooked. I saw that it called for yeast and was skeptical, but it actually turned out quite good.

Ingredients
2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup lukewarm water
3 cups unbleached flour (we used bleached and it was fine)
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1 ripe banana, slightly mashed

Add the yeast, pinch of salt, and water together and beat until foamy. The original recipe calls for using a stand mixer which was not available at the time, so we just used a hand. As for the foamy part, most of it was foamy. It took too long to get it all so we just went with it.

While the mixing is going on (if you have two people or a stand mixer), add together all of the other ingredients. Then add the foamy mixture and knead until dough is tacky. If you don't have a dough hook or stand mixer, I highly recommend that you flour your hands for this. I didn't and it was a mess. Don't add too much extra flour though because the bread will get dry. Place in a greased/oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let rise for one hour. It should double in size.

Knead the dough on floured surface for ten minutes. Break into 8 balls and put into a cake dish. Cover and let rise for 1 hour to double in size. We didn't have a cake dish (are you noticing a theme?) so we just used a bunt pan and it was fine.

Bake the bread at 350F for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Despite the use of yeast and lack of sugar, this was a really nice bread. I might suggest using 2 ripe bananas just to give it a little more banana taste. These had only the slightest hint. I don't know if that will throw off the flour measurements, but it is something to investigate.