The 350 Degree Oven: Adventures in Mika's Kitchen: The Battle of Banana Breads: Alton Brown vs. Mika

Recently, my in-laws were visiting from overseas - and one of the things they love (apparently) is fruit. They bought tons and tons of fruit - papayas, apples, bananas... and after dropping them off at LAX for their return flight, we came home to the fragrance of brown spotted bananas, and a pile of apples so big I didn't know what to do. So I stuck the apples in the refrigerator, and decided the only thing to do with these bananas is make banana bread.

Most people know that I am a huge Alton Brown (or "AB" as us Alton Brown fans like to call him) fan. I have never found an Alton Brown recipe that I didn't love... so I thought it would be appropriate to try his recipe out and see how it compares with my own. AB's recipe calls for some ingredients that you may or may not have lying around in your kitchen: almond extract, and oat flour. Almond extract is easy enough to find - it's usually right next to the vanilla extract in the baking aisle of your supermarket. Oat flour can usually be found in a "Whole Foods" type of market - I conveniently already had the Bob's Red Mill brand of Oat Flour in my pantry.

My recipe, on the other hand, calls for more common ingredients. This time, since I just purchased a bottle of walnut oil that I was dying to use... I tweaked my recipe slightly with the addition of walnut oil. Now you can just use regular oil if you like. But personally, I think that the walnut oil added a wonderful new dimension to my recipe.

I made both versions of Banana Bread as mini-loaves. When I tasted them, I thought that AB's recipe won, hands down. I LOVED his recipe. It was so good, and the almond extract was such an unexpected twist that really enhanced the banana flavor. However, I swear I did not tell anyone which loaf was mine and which loaf was AB's. For some reason, everyone who tried both breads preferred my recipe over ABs!!! Really? Really????? Seriously??*?!!@!!??*? Not a single person preferred his recipe over mine. (Maybe I didn't ask enough people?)

Anyway, why don't you try them for yourself, and decide for yourself which one you like better. The two recipes are very similar, mainly the type of fat used is different. AB calls for the use of butter, and I used oil. I think that sometimes oil can give a more tender texture to the final result - but it's also hard to compete with the wonderful flavor of butter.

I have posted both recipes here - mine is posted second under AB's recipe:

AB's Banana Bread (Butter):
350 grams mashed banana (about 1 2/3 c.)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
2 eggs
1 tsp. almond extract
1 2/3 c. flour
1/3 c. oat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then grease and flour 3 small loaf pans (or one large one). Weigh about 350 grams (or 12 oz) of banana on a kitchen scale. (If you don't have a kitchen scale, this amount is approximately 1 2/3 c. of mashed banana). Using a potato masher, or a fork, mash the banana.

2. Melt the stick of butter in the microwave. Mix the mashed banana with the sugar, and beat in the eggs, almond extract, and melted butter.

3. Sift the flour, oat flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. (If you don't have oat flour, you can just use regular flour, or whole wheat flour).

4. Chop the walnuts. Reserve 1/4 c. chopped walnuts for sprinkling on the top of the bread, the remaining 3/4 c. will be added directly to the batter eventually (not yet!).

5. Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry ingredients, and gently mix for about 10 seconds until the batter is just combined. Then add the 3/4 c. of walnuts, and mix in very gently. (Do not over-mix, or you will ruin the texture of the banana bread - it will be tough and hard instead of light and fluffy).

6. Divide the batter between the 3 prepared mini-loaf pans, or pour the entire batter into one regular loaf pan. Sprinkle the tops with the reserved 1/4 c. of walnuts, and large crystal decorating sugar.

7. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour (for a large loaf pan), or bake at 30 minutes for 3 small loaf pans. When done, cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan to a metal rack.

Mika's Banana Bread (Oil):
2.75 grams mashed banana (about 1 1/3 c.)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil (I used 1/4 c. canola oil, and 1/4 c. walnut oil)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 T. milk
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour 1 large loaf pan, or 3 small loaf pans. Weigh out and mash your bananas. You will end up with about 1 1/3 c. of mashed banana.

2. To make this oil based banana bread, I thought that the use of walnut oil might impart a depth of flavor to the final product - so instead of 1/2 c. of plain canola oil, I used instead 1/4 c. of walnut oil mixed with 1/4 c. of canola oil. You can find walnut oil at most specialty food stores and in gourmet markets. This 1 Liter bottle was about $10. Of course, you can just use regular oil if you don't think you will be using much walnut oil in your kitchen - it does tend to go rancid quickly, so I wouldn't bother buying a huge bottle unless you think you can use it all before the expiration date.

3. Mix the oil, sugar, and mashed banana.

4. Add the eggs, vanilla, and milk, and mix until uniformly combined.

5. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix very gently until the flour is almost thoroughly mixed in. (Do not over-mix).

7. When the flour is almost mixed in, add the nuts, and continue gently mixing until just combined.

8. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, or 3 small mini-loaf pans, and sprinkle with large crystal decorating sugar. (You can use regular granulated sugar or brown sugar instead if you don't have any decorating sugar.)