Divine ECLECTIC Banana Bread with Ginger, Vanilla, Walnuts, Rum-soaked raisins and more...

ECLECTIC BANANA BREAD
We’ve been through a few recipes to get to this place. We’ve added walnuts, vanilla, Brandy, chopped apples, used ginger instead of nutmeg, added a touch of molasses to color the bread darker… but now here we are. We incorporated whole-wheat flour too. Eclectic banana bread with ginger, walnuts, vanilla and rum-soaked golden raisins. It has turned out really, really, well. The search for perfection is the road to tears, but I have to say this is excellent. I’ll take that.

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz all-purpose flour
4 oz whole wheat bread flour (we used King Arthur)
3 tsp baking powder (I typically eyeball this so err to the upside)
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp ground ginger. I used an actual teaspoon not a measure so this is quite a lot.
4 oz butter. We used Kerrygold, bit spendy for baking but it tastes great. Unlike pale butter.
5 oz soft brown sugar.
2 eggs.
3 bananas, mashed with a fork. Riper is better.
A fistful (big bear fist) of walnuts.
¾ cup or thereabouts of golden raisins generously soaked in dark or golden rum (not spiced)
2 tbsp of vanilla essence
4 tbsp of molasses, a touch more won’t hurt. If you don’t want a dark color you may omit this.

PREPARATION AND BAKING:
I just put everything into the KitchenAid, using a K45B beater paddle and turn it on slow. Eventually everything incorporates with a little help pushing the sides in to the mix with a soft spatula. So long as your butter is not cold, all will be good.

I use a cast-iron Lodge loaf pan with a parchment paper liner that I cut to fit. So far, no trouble removing cooked loaves. I pre-heat my oven and set the loaf pan on my baking steel. I make a cut so the loaf will break in the middle. (It isn’t really a cut, the batter is too soft to cut, but a lengthways pass with a sharp paring knife works)

I use an Anova Precision Oven. For this loaf I set steam to 70%, temp to 350F and use the fan setting. I rotate the loaf tin halfway through cooking time (30 mins) which I set to a total of one hour. I sprinkle the top with a little regular sugar before putting it in the oven to get a little crunchy crust.

All ovens are different. Because it is compact, as a fan oven, the Anova is likely a bit more aggressive than a full-size oven, but I think these times and temps are a good starting point.

FWIW: This combination of camera and lighting, for some reason, always makes my baked goods look darker than they really are.