rustic banana yeast bread

This was easy. Easy-peasy. I took the no-knead bread floating around the internet, and decided to enrich the dough somewhat, adding a little butter, egg, and of course, bananas! This meant I had to let it rise for only one hour, followed by letting it rise slowly in the fridge for about 22-24 hours.

 

The beauty of this is that it’s a little more moist and soft, with a slight banana scent and flavor without being overly moist and sweet like it’s chemically leavened quick bread version. And it’s still really easy. You just need time for it. But it seems like most of us have a lot of time lately. I hope you are all doing well.

 

rustic banana yeast bread 

1/4 cup milk or milk alternative (I used almond milk)

1 and 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

2 ripe bananas

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup more if needed

method

Heat the milk or milk alternative until just lukewarm, about 110 degrees F. max. Add a pinch of the sugar from the 2 Tablespoons and add to the milk, stirring to dissolve. Add the yeast and stir gently again to get all the yeast wet. Leave to bubble and get foamy.

Add the rest of the sugar to a medium bowl and also add the bananas and mash them with a fork into the sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract to the bananas and continue to mash and mix together until all is mushy.

Add two cups of flour and salt to the banana mixture and pour the yeast milk mixture over the banana and flour mixture after it has gotten all foamy and bubbly.

Stir all together until a dough forms, adding up to a 1/2 cup more flour if needed, then transfer to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap and leave undisturbed in a warm place in your place for about an hour, followed by putting the bowl into your refrigerator for about a day.

Take out of refrigerator the next day and punch down the dough, then form into a ball. Get another bowl and line with a large square of parchment paper. Sprinkle flour on the parchment paper and transfer the ball of dough to this container. Sprinkle more flour, about 1/4 cup, on top of the ball of dough. cover this bowl with plastic or a towel and let rise again, about 2 hours until doubled again. Your room temperature may vary this time needed to rise.

Place a Dutch oven with oven safe lid into middle rack of oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F., making sure it has been at that temperature for at least thirty minutes before baking.

When ready to bake, cut or score three times on top, either diagonally or in a pattern.

Carefully remove Dutch oven (with oven mitts, obviously), remove lid, and lift up dough using the parchment paper and transfer both the parchment paper and dough to the Dutch oven so that it fits similarly to how it was in the bowl.

Carefully put the lid back on, making sure to use oven mitts so you don’t burn your hands!

Bake with lid on for about 30 minutes. Carefully remove lid after that and place a piece of foil on top of bread if it looks dark and let bake for about 10-15 minutes more, until internal temperature is about 200-210 degrees F. and loaf has a hollow sound when you knock on the bottom of it.

Wait for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

6 responses to “rustic banana yeast bread”

  1. I doubled this and had twice the nice stuff. It is not a sweet bread but rather a great one with that hint of banana taste to slice and toast with a morning breakfast. Thank you for sharing this and a great way to use up those old frozen bananas.

    I do wonder though if the thawed bananas added too much moisture that prevented it from rising further; mine was fairly dense and small but tasty nonetheless.

    Like

    • ljhickey5, Thanks for your comments! I’m glad you liked it. As far as the moisture and whether that caused it to rise further, it’s difficult for me to say as I’m no bread expert. I’ve had heavy loaves that don’t seem to rise as much when I add too much flour. But then again, there are probably numerous factors the ability for a dough to rise. Thanks for stopping by and happy baking!

      Like

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