More Cranberry Banana Nut Bread

[Italiancook]

My second attempt at my mom's Cranberry Banana Nut Bread took place this morning. I am convinced Mom gave me a bogus recipe. Today, I left out the milk, using only bananas and the relish as the wet ingredients. I am much more pleased with the consistency of the batter. It was not as soupy. The batter felt and looked like a sweet bread batter. When I have the recipe perfected, I'll let you know.

Recipe calls for 2 cups sifted flour. I used 2 cups flour without sifting it. I'm unsure whether it should be 2 cups, sifted or 2 cups sifted flour. So I tried it without sifting.

BakerAunt, I didn't drain the relish. It didn't seem very watery. If it were to be drained, the Williams-Sonoma brand would need to drain overnight, I think. But, I reduced the relish from 1 cup to 3/4 cups.

Recipe says to wrap and hold bread overnight before cutting. Mom always did that, so I'm going to do it.

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[luvpyrpom]

Italiancook, I wanted to share with you that I made your Cranberry Banana Bread last week. It was delicious. I did use my own cranberry relish I had in the freezer. I think next time I will increase the banana up to 4 bananas as it was a little dry for my own personal taste. I like the tang of the cranberry in the banana bread. I did the method of measuring 2 cups of flour and sifting afterwards. It didn't even sink that much after cooling. I'm thinking that if you want more orange flavor, maybe adding a little of the Fiori di Sicilia? I'm going to try to tweak my own cranberry relish to have a little more orange flavor.

[Italiancook]

I'm glad you tried the Cranberry Banana Bread recipe. The bread my mom made was quite moist. I'm curious -- did you use all the milk called for in the recipe I posted?

Using the Williams-Sonoma Cranberry Relish, the bread was moist, but the bananas I used were larger than a normal large banana. So adding another banana may solve the problem. The second time I tried this recipe, I used no milk. The Williams-Sonoma product is much different than Ocean Spray Cranberry Orange Relish on the Internet.

Thanks for the tip about which way to handle the flour sifting.

[luvpyrpom]

I did use all the milk in the recipe. I think my relish might be a little more drier than the commercial kind. I'm anxious to try again with the extra banana. But I just took out a zucchini bread so will have to wait until that's gone before I try again. The bananas I use are quite large, too. I don't think I've ever seen small ones in the supermarket. I have a family favorite of banana bread that uses 7 large bananas.

[Italiancook]

luvpyrpom, thanks for letting me know about the milk. I guess the difference between your experience and mine is the difference in relishes. I guess I'm going to have to make cranberry-orange relish and try the bread with it. I like the bread with Williams-Sonoma's relish, but the apples in it change the taste of the final product. I'm hoping that adding 1/4 teaspoon orange oil will help.

Maybe other don't mind, but I do not like the super-sizing of fruits and vegetables. My favorite cookbooks are from the 1970's and early 1980. When using them, I have to remind myself that vegetables were smaller then and adjust the amount of veggies I use for the recipes.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, the ever-shrinking tuna fish can makes up for the super-sized veggies. 🙂

[Italiancook]

Mike, you made me laugh out loud with your tuna can remark.

I have complained to the store about the shrinking tuna can. Didn't do any good, of course. I think the problem is that fruit is usually sold by the pound and tuna by the can (or bundle at Sam's). So either way, the store receives more of our money.

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