Try My Ultimate Banana Bread Recipe!

My Ultimate Banana Bread recipe keeps well!

Although it's not the end of the week for baking the weekend treats, I took advantage of buying a one dollar banana bag of over ripe bananas to take home.  By the time I finished sorting through this bargain, I had enough for the family to snack on plus four small banana breads to put in the freezer!

This is my favorite recipe when it comes to dealing with making anything like banana bread or cake since it's easy and so moist.  Truly, this is the only one I make these days because of all the recipes I tried, this definitely is the best. 

The recipe is simple and makes either four small loaves, two regular loaves, or a tube-pan size cake like a typical angel food cake. 

By the way, I suggest the next time you see one of those discounted bags of bananas to weigh it on the fruit scale because you might be surprised.  The typical bags I bought weigh in on an average of four pounds for that dollar, which is quite economical!

I do hope the next time you decide to do something with your bananas that you will want to try this delicious recipe of mine.  You won't be disappointed!

You can alter the flavor of this recipe by substituting one cup of white flour for one cup of Great River Organic Milling Company Whole Wheat Flour that is currently on giveaway.  This also makes a scrumptious treat.

Ultimate Banana Bread or Cake--Nuts Style!

1 cup of canola oil
1-1/2 cups of sugar
3-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour or 2-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour and 1 cup of Great River Organic Milling Company Whole Wheat Flour
1-1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large or 3 medium)
2/3 cup of sour milk  (add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the milk to sour it)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of salt
4 eggs

Measure out your sour milk and stir in your baking soda.  In your mixing bowl, add your canola oil and sugar and beat with your electric mixer until well combined, then add the eggs one at a time to beat in thoroughly.  Next add your sifted flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and alternate with the milk and soda mixture until everything is well mixed. 

Grease whatever loaf pans or tube pan you choose.  For the four small loaves pictured, I used sizes about 7-3/8" x 3-7/8" x 2-1'4".

Bake at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Great River Organic Milling Company Giveaway!--Ends October 4, 2011

**Disclaimer:  This post has been compensated through a free product (s) or monetary payment.  Opinions are solely mine. All links are "no-follow" links.**

Great River Organic Milling Company bread flours

The other day I told you about the wonderful selection of organic whole grains, flours, pancake mixes and nutritious cereals in my review, which I also shared a picture of the delicious waffles that I made from their whole grain buttermilk pancake mix besides my homemade whole-wheat bread and seven-grain buns using their flour.  

However, I thought you would be interested in these two other great ways to use Great River Organic Milling Company Pancake Mixes.  The first way is if you have any leftover meat for a quick and economical dinner with waffles topped with your creamed leftovers.  Either the Buttermilk or the Seven-Grain mixes work nicely for this purpose.

Great River flour and mixes

You'll chop the meat into little pieces before browning it with a small chopped onion in about three tablespoons of olive oil.  When the finely chopped onion pieces are golden, you can drain a can of your favorite vegetable like peas or green beans and add it along with a can of cream of mushroom soup plus the herb you love the most.  Some fresh thyme or dried chopped thyme is good or basil is another one for flavor along with salt and pepper to make perfect.  Serve this over a batch of freshly cooked waffles.  

Another yummy way to enjoy these pancake mixes is to make some waffles and top with chopped bananas and a scoop or two of your favorite ice cream for a quick dessert.  Check out this sinfully tasty treat I whipped out because these pancake mixes turn out almost a spongy, cake-like waffle to compliment the ice cream.

With ice cream and sliced bananas, this waffle was even tastier.

Today I also made two more loaves of my yeast-raised whole-wheat bread.  Here's the recipe!

Here' my Whole Wheat Brad.

Thanks to Great River Organic Milling, one lucky Nuts 4 Stuff reader in the United States wins their choice of a Baker's Box (with four varieties of their organic flour) or a Breakfast Box (a bag of pancake mix and cereal)!

Both Are Mandatory to Enter:

1. You must follow me on Google Friends Connect before any of your entries will count.  If you already follow, then tell me the name you follow me by with your email (if not in your profile) in a comment.

2. Go to Great River Organic Milling Company and tell me another product you would love to try or something you learned about them in a comment.

Extra Entries:

Add @Nuts4Stuff to Your Twitter and tell me so in your comment with your Twitter id--for 2 extra entries (leave two separate comments)

Tweet #Win Great River Organic Milling products #Giveaway @Greatrivermill via @Nuts4Stuff  http://t.co/DGDeYdh1(can be done daily)--1 extra entry per day in another comment

Add @Greatrivermill to your Twitter--for 2 extra entries (leave two separate comments)

"Like" Great River Organic Milling Company  on Facebook--for 2 extra entries to leave in two separate comments

Share Great River Organic Milling Company on your Facebook Wall--5 extra entries to leave in five separate comments 

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Subscribe to the Nuts 4 Stuff blog by email--2 extra entries (must confirm) to leave in two separate comments

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List this giveaway on any giveaway site just leave a link to this post wherever you share it--3 extra entries (leave three separate comments and tell me where in each comment)

Blog about this giveaway and comment with a link to the post--5 extra entries (leave five separate comments and tell me where in each comment)

Grab my Nuts 4 Stuff button and paste it in your sidebar--5 extra entries (leave five separate comments and tell me where you left it in each comment)

Add Nuts 4 Stuff to your blogroll  (using my URL) with a link back to me (comment where you left it for 2 more extra entries)

Enter another Nuts 4 Stuff giveaway (enter as many as you want, however, only 1 extra entry will count) and tell me which one in a comment--1 extra entry

Leave a separate comment for each entry.  Be sure you include your email address inside your comment so I can contact you if you win.  This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States only.  Do follow the rules because I check entries.   Be alert that if you attempt to enter using multiple identities will be grounds for disqualification. 

This giveaway ends October 4, 2011 at 12 PM Eastern Standard Time. The winner will need to respond to my email with name and shipping address within 48-hours or another winner will be picked.  

Great River Organic Milling Company Review + My Whole-Wheat Bread Recipe

**Disclaimer:  This post has been compensated through a free product (s) or monetary payment.  Opinions are solely mine. All links are "no-follow" links.**

Here are the organic flours and mixes I received.

I was delighted when I had the opportunity to work with Great River Organic Milling Company and the wonderful selections of products they provided for this review.  I believe to maintain optimum health it helps to fuel your body the right way with the type of nutritious whole grains, flours, cereals and mixes that this company sells. 
 
Great River Organic Milling Company takes great pride in making sure their products are grown in healthy soil void of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to preserve the environment and the delicate balance of nature to produce quality products for both taste and nutrition.

What sets this company apart aside from being certified organic by Quality Assurance International and Kosher approved to meet rigorous standards are their natural granite millstones.  These millstones grind their whole grain flour into stone ground to give it that superior distinct flavor.

I was sent their 100% Organic Bread Flour Blend (Seven Grain), 100% Organic Bread Flour Whole Wheat, Organic Buttermilk Pancake Mix, Organic Five Grain Pancake Mix, and Highland Melody Whole Grain Hot Cereal.

The first thing I decided to make was a recipe of whole-wheat bread by hand.  I do not own a bread machine or see a need for one.  However, if you have one, then these flours are advertised to work well in them.    

I do not like to use straight whole wheat flour because it makes my bread too heavy.  Instead, I use less than half whole wheat flour to the white.  This always worked out better to produce a lighter, less dense bread with a better texture.

I also experimented with their Seven Grain Flour Blend for a batch of delicious homemade buns using the same Whole-Wheat Bread Nuts Style recipe with a simple substitution of their Seven Grain Flour Blend.   The only other thing that changed was the baking pans. 

Whole-Wheat Bread Nuts Style

2 cups of Great River Organic Bread Flour Whole Wheat

2 tablespoons of active dry yeast

1/4 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of canola oil

2 teaspoons of salt

3 cups of warm water

about 6-1/2 cups of white flour or more depending on the humidity

Dissolve your yeast in 1/2 cup of your very warm water (not scalding).  Test the temperature on your wrist.  Add a teaspoon of your measured sugar to the yeast water to help it bubble up.

Sift your whole wheat, and half the white flour, sugar, salt into a large mixing bowl.  Put the rest of your warm water, oil, and bubbly yeast and mix thoroughly, adding more white flour as needed until it doesn't stick.  

Knead in your same large mixing bowl or on a floured surface for about five minutes until soft and pliable.

Cover and let grow for about an hour and half.  Punch down.  Turn out onto a floured surface again and roll or shape into three loaves.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Here's the texture of my Whole-Wheat bread once sliced.

Here I made some Whole-Wheat buns from the same dough.

One morning I made the Organic Buttermilk Pancake Mix in my Belgian Waffle Maker.  This was really easy and made a great breakfast.  Though I must say, these yummy waffles were more filling than normal. 

Here's the waffles I made from their Organic Buttermilk Pancake Mix.

Another day I tried the Organic Five Grain Pancake Mix into pancakes that time.  This five grain mix also was very good, and honestly, extremely filling compared to conventional pancakes.  Mothers, you'll smile when you watch how quickly your children clean their plates and yet they don't know what they ate was nutritious--only delicious. 

Finally, I cooked a pot of the Highland Melody Whole Grain Hot Cereal.  This is like Irish Oats.  However, for those of you unfamiliar with Irish Oats, I will tell you that these oats have more of a texture like a cooked rice.  We added just a little milk and sugar like our normal old-fashioned cooked oatmeal and loved the tasty difference.

 

Everything I sampled here was wonderful and highly recommend Great River Organic Milling.  Find them on Facebook, or visit their website and online storefront or purchase on Amazon.