Lidieth's Banana Bread

By Alissa -
When we were in Costa Rica for our honeymoon, we stayed at the Arco Iris (Rainbow) Lodge near the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We had breakfast at the lodge twice. The first day I tried a slice of a dark brown quickbread, but I wasn't entirely sure what it was. It looked like a date bread, but tasted like banana. It was a really dark color, and came in small squares about 2 inches in size. It was really good. The second morning I tried it again, and decided it was definitely banana bread. I went for a second piece, but it was gone. I waited about 20 minutes to see if the cook would bring out another one. She did, and it was still hot from the oven. I grabbed 4 slices, wrapped them in a napkin and slipped out the door. We ate the banana bread later that morning on our drive to the next town. I declared it the best banana bread I had ever had, and wished I had absconded with the whole loaf. A few weeks ago I emailed the Arco Iris Lodge and begged them for the recipe. I told a sappy story, pleaded my case, it was our honeymoon, yada yada, and literally begged for the recipe. I got a quick response saying the recipe is on their website. Doh.

So I tried it tonight. It wasn't the perfection that we had in Costa Rica, but it was tasty. I will definitely make it again. I thought it needed a little something, perhaps a dash of salt. Given the list of ingredients, I wasn't sure it would turn the dark color that we had in C.R., but it did. The recipe calls for a standard loaf pan. I made two mini loafs, and I think the batter could have filled 3. It puffed up way over the top of the mini loafs. I think if I would have made it in 3 or 4 of the mini pans, it might have turned out like the small darker squares that I had in C.R. So, long intro aside, here's the recipe. :)

1½ cups flour
1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
5 med sized VERY ripe bananas
1 tbsp butter
½ to 1 cup sugar (raw cane or Demerara recommended)
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla


Method:

Grease a standard loaf tin. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
Sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Mash the bananas.
In a separate bowl, soften the butter with an electric mixer.
Mix in the sugar and then add the beaten egg and vanilla.
Combine with mashed bananas.
Pour into the flour mixture and blend well.
Pour into greased baking tin and bake for 45 mins – 1 hour.

* I used turbinado sugar, which I understand is the same as Demerara but just smaller crystals. I baked the 2 smaller loafs for about 45 minutes.

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