March: Banana Overload

There's a place near Reed called Limbo where you can by dollar bags of fruits and veggies that are about to go bad. I learned about this just recently when a friend of mine called me up and asked if I had plans that night. I didn't. She said she had about 20 bananas that were about to go bad and asked if I wanted to help her deal with them. Of course I did!

We ended up with:
Banana Daqueris (I've made these before)
Jacked-Up Banana Bread/Cake courtesy of Shutterbean
Banana Blueberry Muffins (I've made these before too but skipped the whole wheat flour and added more butter and less applesauce)

Banana Cake-Bread Awesomeness barely adapted from Shutterbean

-4-6 ripe bananas
-3/4 cup sugar
-2 tablespoons salted butter
-1 large egg, plus 1 egg white
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 cup flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-2-3 teaspoons cinnamon (I always do spices to taste because I get too lazy to measure, so a few shakes of a cinnamon jar should do it)
-1 teaspoon nutmeg (1 shake/pinch)
-1-2 teaspoons ginger (slightly more than the nutmeg)
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 325. Move rack to the center. Grease a 9 inch loaf pan.

2. Slice bananas in half lengthwise and cut in half through the middle. Trim to fill the bottom of the loaf pan.

3. In a large pan, bring 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of water to a boil, without stirring. You can swirl the pan though. *Note: I doubled this because I love caramel. Cook until the water has evaporated and the mixture starts caramelizing. Remove from the heat and add the butter and whisk until melted.

4. Add the long banana pieces cut side down and cook over low heat for 1 minute. Transfer the slices cut side down to the prepared loaf pan, arranging them crosswise. Drizzle the remaining caramel on top. This is where more is good.

5. In a food processor, puree the rest of the bananas to equal 1 cup (add more banana if necessary--I did). Transfer to a bowl and all the remaining 1/2 cup sugar. Beat in the egg and the egg white as well as the vanilla.

6. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Add the banana mixture and oil and stir until well combined. Pour the batter over the bananas in the pan and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out dry, 50 to 55 minutes. Try to let cool for 10 minutes, and carefully invert the cake onto a platter. I couldn't wait to let it cool completely so I ate it while it was still hot. I recommend this way. It keeps in the fridge, covered, for a few days...if you can resist eating it for that long. I couldn't. It's also good chilled