We have been dealing with a serious winter in Winnipeg, less snow, colder temperatures. I confess I have been looking my Hawaiian photos from 1 year 1/2 ago with more frequency…and last week I baked Banana muffins to my son Kevin and he asked me :” Mama, I want banana bread, the one you can slice, the one that had no nuts from that Maui water falls. ” Ok, I thought, How Am I going to do that? I remember that place, most expensive banana bread of my life in a food truck in the middle of water falls ( TWINFALLS FARMSTAND) in the road to Hanna, the most dangerous road I ever drove in my life, and it was so dangerous that once the rain started we gave up after KM 9. But that bread was delicious, it had that wild banana taste that grows on that farm. On our way there we had a wonderful panoramic view and I was crazy to drink coconut water, I haven’t try one fresh in 10 years but I looked at the prices…8 US dollars for one coconut, are you kidding me ? So we got there in this panoramic view and I saw there was a truck selling coconuts- US 9 dollars …forget it…than a guy with his friend with a truck full of coconut approached us and said: -Do you want free coconut? – I asked:- Why would you give me a free one? – he said, “well I picked these coconut from our local farm and tried to sell in this parking lot and this FOOD truck here said I should get away, because he was the one with license. …so I ‘ll give coconuts for free , just beside him..because life is more than money!” ( I believe his name was Paul…but not sure)
so I accepted that coconut very happy but I did not granted his wish to hold the coconut in my hand while he used his sword to cut the topping…are you crazy? not going to be in the Hospital on my trip to Hawaii.
So I researched on Internet all kinds of Maui banana bread until I found one saying it was from Hana Maui Botanical Gardens- found at 1st Travelers Choice Internet Cookbook . I read the recipe and made sense but I knew that plain sugar would not give that smoky flavor of the bread ( I decided to mix Demerara because they produced in Hawaii and it is a light brown sugar from the first crystallization during processing cane juice into sugar crystals)
And using regular bananas would not give that Maui feeling with fruit tree smell in the air. So I looked at my fruit tray and I saw the Chuoi Cau Banana’s we got at Asian Market, I believe it s from Vietnam and they were ripe ones! Can’t get better than that! So the final result was perfect, and I used a bit of whole grain flour and it is DAIRY free!
ingredients :
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1/4 cup of demerara sugar
1/4 cup of whole grain flour
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of table salt
1 tea spoon of baking soda
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening ( I used Crisco)
6 ripe baby Chuoi Cau Banana’s chopped
2 large eggs
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
1/3 tea spoon of ground cloves
canola oil spray
parchment paper
Nonstick 9-Inch x 5-Inch Loaf Pan
how to prepare it :
Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray with canola oil a 9 inch x 5 loaf pan and cover with parchment paper and spray again. Separate it.
Sift together the flours, the sugars , baking soda and the salt. Using a mixer in a medium container mix the chopped bananas , crisco , the eggs , cinnamon and gloves until is all blended and uniform. Fold using a spoon the flour mix into the blended ingredients. Do it gently, just enough to get mixed. Transfer to the Loaf pan and thump few times until all the air holes disappeared ( I did it 3 times) , than Bake in 350 F for 45 minutes. Mine took 48 minutes than I transferred to the cooler rack. I could not wait to cool down, I sliced a piece right away, my son Kevin approved it! Healthy snack to go on his lunch bag! Nut free, whole grain and dairy free!
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OBS: You can also do a version that carry nuts. I did a second recipe where I added pistachios, dark chocolate chips and some sunflower seeds. I added some photos ( the smallest photos here) end with this second version. You just need to add the nuts+ chocolate+ seeds on the flour mix before you mix the bananas on it, than you mix all the same as the recipe says. My mix of nuts/seeds/chocolate it was all 2/3 cup.
