Hawaiian Banana Bread

I tend to prefer banana bread with white sugar versus brown sugar because the banana flavor comes out more. I noticed this is the key difference between banana recipes from Hawaii and the mainland so I made this recipe and it's delicious. The flavor reminds me of Vietnamese banana bread pudding I grew up eating.

Yields: 2 loaves
*I halved it since I made this during a pandemic and needed to limit valuable ingredients such as egg, flour and sugar and put the batter into 3 mini loaves because I can't find my regular loaf tin.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cup sugar
• 6-7 ripe bananas, mashed
• 4 eggs, well beaten
• 2 1/2 cups, all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare 2 loaf pans, by greasing with butter. Set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
4. Add masked bananas and eggs. Mix well.
5. Whisk/sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
6. Slowly add to the creamed mixture.
7. Mix gently until just combined. Do not over mix.
8. Pour batter evenly into 2 prepared loaf pans.
9. Bake for 45-50 minutes. (About 35 minutes for the 3 mini pans)
10. Test doneness with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it is done!

Maui Banana Bread Muffins

This is my favorite recipe. Reminds me of banana bread Mike and I got on our honeymoon in Maui halfway on our road to Hana trip. It's also super easy with not a lot of ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 cup of flour  
• 1 cup sugar  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda  
• 3 very ripe bananas  
• 1/2 cup melted butter 
  
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. 
3. Blend together bananas, shortening, and eggs. 
4. Fold flour mix into blended wet ingredients ...don't over mix. 
5. Spoon into 9 x 9 x 2-inch pan, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (Or use paper liners in 12-cup standard cupcake tin.) Thump once to remove air holes. 
6. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. (20 minutes for muffins). Bread/muffins should be a dark brown color.
7. Cool. Cut into squares. 

Chi's Banana Muffins

I loved this recipe and so does the kids! Applesauce and yogurt makes this so moist and makes you feel it's healthy too! I only had nonfat Greek yogurt at home and it worked out fine. (I halved this recipe and got 23 standard muffins. I also omitted the nuts)

Ingredients:

3½ Cups flour
2.5 Cups sugar (I used half brown sugar and half white sugar)
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Teaspoon baking soda
2 Sticks butter (softened)
½ Cup of applesauce
½ Cup of plain yogurt
4 Eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
5 Tablespoons of butter milk
*Substitution: 1 Cup of a milk and lemon (1 whole) mix
1½ Cup nuts of choice (optional)
5 Bananas or 2 Cups (mashed up)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all wet ingredients except bananas in a large bowl.
Sift dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients in portions. When the batter is all mixed
up, fold in mashed bananas.
Pour into muffin pan and bake at about 20 minutes or until
toothpick comes out clean. Or you can bake in a loaf for about an hour.

Banana Cupcakes

Super delicious and moist I made these cupcakes for Jackie's 26th birthday. I originally was going to do a tres leche cupcake but had 3 overly ripen bananas that I had to do something with. I topped it with my new Swiss meringue buttercream recipe and added around 4 tablespoons of mashed bananas to it at the end to make Banana Swiss Merginue Buttercream. The results were delicious!

(Cupcake recipe from Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella.)
Makes 18-22

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (About 2 bananas)
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs to the creamed mixture and beat well. Add the bananas and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add all the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix until completely integrated.
5. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix for 1 minute on medium speed.
6. Fill cupcake liners one-half to three-quarters full (take this seriously, I underfilled and they didn't rise enough) with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

Banh Chuoi Nuong

(Vietnamese Baked Banana Bread/Pudding)

Growing up Mom always made this with left over bread and overly ripe bananas. I love it. I remember eating it for breakfast the big morning of the Whittier earthquake and how everybody was upset the food tank almost fell on mom but I was upset I lost my banh chuoi during the quake. LOL. (Selfish, fat kid...)

I have a lot of ripe bananas and we bought a bag of day-old bread at Lee's Sandwich for 50 cents. I called Mom and she told me how to do it over the phone. So of course, there are no measurements.

Ingredients:

• Day old French bread
• Milk
• Sugar
• Bananas, sliced length wise
• Butter

Directions:

1. Break the bread into small pieces (1/2 inch cubes or pieces)
2. Mix milk and very little sugar (since bananas are sweet) into the bread in a large bowl. Bread should be soaked with milk mixture.
3. Butter a pan and put a layer of the bread mixture in.
4. Layer bananas next. Sprinkle with sugar to caramelize.
5. Put a thin layer of bread on top of the banana later.
6. Lastly, pour melted butter over the top. Sprinkle with a little more sugar.
7. Bake at 350 degree for an hour.

Notes:

• Don't use too much milk and the cooking time should decrease. Just enough to soften the bread.
• Use salted butter

Banana Pancakes

Yes, I like to make pancakes. I was watching Bobby Flay Throwdown and had to try a new technique: whipping up egg whites then folding to get a lighter, fluffier pancake. It worked so great I'm gonna do that for all my pancake recipes from now on!

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Directions
Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and bananas.
Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.