Tyler Florence Fridays: Let them eat bread!

Do you regularly follow Tyler Florence Fridays? If not, then you missed the announcement recently that Tyler himself has been keeping his eye out on us!

Not only that, one entry per week will be chosen to be featured on Tyler's own website!

I had no chance at all last week, especially not against Karen's beautiful cheesecake - my potatoes, while tasty, were not even remotely photogenic.

How about this week's choice, however? Doesn't my banana bread look so much better than my potatoes did? You can't even compare them for taste, though: apples to oranges, both Tyler, both tasty, but so very different from each other.

The recipe for this calls for pecans, which makes sense when you read the name: Banana Bread with Pecans, but I don't like nuts in my banana bread, and the kids can't have anything nut at all at school, so I simply removed them.

Oh, and I doubled the recipe to make two loaves instead of one. Which you will want to do after trying this.

Let me tell you, all banana breads are not made equal. This one, with the unusual step of creaming half the banana with the sugar to make a banana cream, makes for a wonderful bread. Not greasy, with extra banana flavor but without huge chunks of banana dominating the bread. So good.

I've actually made this twice since I took this picture, doubling the batch both times. It is very easy to have 8 over ripe bananas (and if you are frugal kind of person, overripe bananas are very cheap in the "sell quickly" section of the produce department.)

Don't forget to head over to Tyler Florence Fridays for the round up!

Banana Bread (without Pecans)
by Tyler Florence, as found on Food Network

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Optional: 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (I skipped this - unless I had company coming and was trying to pretty things up, it really isn't necessary.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together for a good 3 minutes; you want a light and fluffy banana cream. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla; beat well and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated; no need to overly blend. Fold in the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula (and nuts, if using). Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Give the pan a good rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Don't get nervous if the banana bread develops a crack down the center of the loaf; that's no mistake, it's typical. Rotate the pan periodically to ensure even browning.

Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Tyler's instructions also add in: Toast the slices of banana bread, dust with confectioners' sugar, and serve. But again, unless I was trying to impress someone, I'd skip this step. The bread speaks for itself.