Eileen's Banana Bread, Aga Style

My wife makes the best banana bread in the world. Then I went and bought an Aga. The banana bread suffered. It burned on top, raw in the center. All the wonderful things we heard about Agas being a bakers best friend went out the window. But she pressed on, learning the nuance, switching ovens, longer cooking times. The result: My wife's banana bread is now out of this world. The Aga will make all sides of the bread crispy and chewy with a moist center that is worthy of a throwdown with Bobby Flail and his gaggle of traveling cooks.

Originally she was going to do this post but a bout with the flu has kept her at bay. I'm sure she would have gone on about how I stepped in and tried to improve her recipe. I whipped the eggs, swapped out butter for oil, sifted and folded. No avail. I even made one with no sugar. She thinks it was a mistake on my part. I'm pretty sure I wanted to try it with no sugar, yeah that's it, no sugar. Me over think a recipe. Blasphemy!

  

step one: get bananas

  

step two: mix it all up

Let's see how it went down in the Agakitchen

Eileen's Banana Bread

pre heat your oven to 350, Aga owners use the Baking Oven & Simmer Oven

• 4 crazy rotten bananas, we hang them from our pot rack so they rot nice and even, when good and rotten you can freeze them
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup veg oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup sugar,
• demerara sugar to sprinkle on top

Crush the bananas with a fork

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl

Add the wet ingredients and mix, don't over mix

Fill a greased loaf pan with the batter and sprinkle liberally with demerara sugar on top

Bake in a greased loaf pan for 90 minutes in a 350 oven. I use a 5 x 11 silicone pan

Check after an hour and cover with foil to protect from over browning. Isn't over browning really a fancy group of words for "burning"? Guilty. A skewer should come clean when you test the bread. Better to over cook than under cook. Over cooking will be a little more crusty.

Aga Instructions

With the rack on the floor and the  plane shelf in bake for 30 minutes in the Baking Oven and 60 minutes in the Simmer Oven. A skewer should come clean when you test the bread. Better to over cook than under cook. Over cooking will be a little more crusty.

step three: eat the bread