Julia Altshuler wrote:

Hmm. Interesting idea. How do I thaw the bananas for baking?
Microwave? Leave overnight in the fridge? I'd been thinking that some
sort of banana oil extract was in order. Then I realized that all I
wanted was a good cake, and I got that. No one needed to know it was
supposed to taste of banana.

I don't freeze them, I just use the ones that have been sitting around
too long and are dark and very ripe. I also almost always toss in more
banana than the recipe calls for. I have never made a bad batch of
banana bread!

* Exported from MasterCook *

Banana Nut Bread

Recipe By :MindiAnn Butler, Wuerzburg Germany American Red Cross
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Breads

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
1/2 cup broken nuts (pecans or walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift together flour, soda, salt. Set aside.
In large bowl cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs an beat well.
Add lemon juice and bananas. Slowly add flour mixture in to banana
mixture until all is blended smooth.
Stir in nuts and blend well.
Bake in greased loaf pan for 1 hour

Goomba38 wrote:

Julia Altshuler wrote:

Hmm. Interesting idea. How do I thaw the bananas for baking?
Microwave? Leave overnight in the fridge? I'd been thinking that some
sort of banana oil extract was in order. Then I realized that all I
wanted was a good cake, and I got that. No one needed to know it was
supposed to taste of banana.

I don't freeze them, I just use the ones that have been sitting around
too long and are dark and very ripe.


They really don't need to be "thawed" as such, their texture is pretty soft.
I'll run them under warm water for a moment to make peeling a bit easier,
that's all that is needed. I use mine primarily for smoothies, I just break
them in half and chuck them in the blender, nothing could be easier...

For a cake you might leave them out to soften for a few minutes so's they'll
be easy to mix, that's all that would be needed...

--
Best
Greg

"Sheldon" wrote in message
ups.com...

Julia Altshuler wrote:
Muddle wrote:

"though it didn't taste strongly of banana" Freeze your bananas
before
baking with them. The result is an over ripe banana which has more
flavor
and is not rotten. The outer skin turns black when frozen.


Hmm. Interesting idea. How do I thaw the bananas for baking?
Microwave? Leave overnight in the fridge? I'd been thinking that some
sort of banana oil extract was in order. Then I realized that all I
wanted was a good cake, and I got that. No one needed to know it was
supposed to taste of banana.

Freezing won't make bananas riper, in fact freezing will keep bananas
from ripening further. If you're going to be using bananas in a few
days and they are becoming too ripe too quickly then place in the
fridge, unpeeled... then they won't need to be thawed. But frozen
bananas are good too... peel, dip in chocolate and roll in chopped nuts
if you like, or leave plain and then wrap in waxed paper twisting both
ends like a giant hard candy. Frozen bananas will keep for many
months. They are eaten frozen,like an ice cream bar, but contain far
fewer calories, contain practically no fat and no salt.... frozen
bananas make a great healthful snack... and a stash of frozen bananas
are very handy for when making smoothies.

Sheldon

Technically they might not be ripe, however the exterior skin turns black
and the texture and taste after thawing is that of an extremely ripe banana
without the bruises normally associated with one. I've two bunches in my
freezer right now, as I use them to make deserts for the holidays.

Sheldon wrote:

....more amateur bullshit.

Anyways, professional bakers do too weigh dry ingredients, and measure
wet ingredients by volume, ie. a gallon of fresh whole eggs
(professional bakers do not count eggs).

Professional bakers weigh *everything* - all dry ingredients
and all wet ingredients, including water.

But most times they don't
weigh or measure anything, or hardly anything... their recipes are
based on full package size, ie. 50lb sack of flour... typically a
commercial bakery recipe will call for multiple 50lb sacks of flour...
therefore the sugar will be in multiples of say 5lb sacks. shortening
in multiple #10 cans, and so on... most commercial recipes use the
entire container...

Shecky has said this before and was just as full of crap as
ever. Here are many foodservice recipes. Notice that they
don't use "the entire container" like he thinks. Even when
he was the pride of the US Navy cooking in a galley, they
didn't use "the entire container." I have the cookbook he
used back then, and it's not designed to use "the entire
container." Military cookbooks are designed for portion
numbers, so recipes will be for 50 or 100. There's no intent
to use "the entire container."

Here's a professional baker's site.
http://www.progressivebaker.com/formulas/index.shtm

This is a bad email graphic representation of a professional
recipe. It's "American Harvest Bread," the first one in the
list on the web page above - check it out on the page to
see how they look for real. Note how there's not even a hint
of "the entire container" of anything. Ingredients are
carried out to two decimal places. Hey, Shecky, bite on this
"entire container."

Formula provided by The Bread Bakers Guild of America
Ingredients
Std Weight (oz) Metric Wt. Baker's %
Grain Soaker
Rye Chops 7.21 oz .202 kg 23%
Cracked Wheat 7.21 oz .202 kg 23%
Polenta 3.96 oz .111 kg 13%
Water 12.93 oz .362 kg 41%
Total 1 lb 15.31 oz .877 kg

Cranberry Soaker
Dried Cranberries 10.11 oz .283 kg 84%
Orange Juice 1.93 oz .054 kg 16%
Total 12.04 oz .337 kg

White Levain
Bread Flour 13.71 oz .384 kg 100%
Water 6.86 oz .192 kg 50%
Stiff Levain 1.43 oz .040 kg 10.5%
Total 1 lb 6 oz .616 kg

Final Dough
Bread Flour 3.4 lbs 1.534 kg 87.8%
Medium Rye Flour 7.61 oz/div .213 kg 12.2%
Water 2.8 lbs 1.257 kg 72%
Salt 2.07 oz .058 kg 3.3%
Yeast .43 oz .012 kg 0.7%
Honey 1.82 oz .051 kg 2.9%
Orange Juice 2.68 oz .075 kg 4.3%
Wild Rice,Cooked 1 lb .475 kg 27.2%
Cranberry Soaker 12.04 oz .337 kg 19.3%
Grain Soaker 1.9 lbs .877 kg 50.2%
White Levain 1.9 lbs .878 kg 50.3%
Total 12 lbs 10.65 oz 5.767 kg

Recipes written with percentages mean that scaling them is a
simple matter. Total flour weight is always given as 100% -
in this recipe, it's the combination of bread flour and
medium rye flour. Everything else is given as a percentage,
by weight, of the weight of the flour. Very simple
arithmetic - divide the weight of any other thing by the
total weight of flours and there it is. *Everything* else
including water, eggs, honey, juices or anything else.
There's no formulating "by eye" in a professional baking
operation.

This means that if you wanted to double or halve the recipe,
as long as you keep the percentages constant, it's the same
recipe. No guesswork, no estimating, no "eyeball" involved.

And see how he goes on even when he hasn't the foggiest
notion what he's burbling about...?

it's no coinsidence that many basic ingredients are
packaged in stardardized sizes (especially canned goods)...
professional cooks and bakers instituted those amounts.

Oh, bullshit. Cans, bottles, jars, boxes, etc. were designed
by package makers. Check out John Sexton's role in can
sizes. Here's a chart of "standardized" can sizes. Notice
how precisely they fit all the recipes you know...
http://gourmetsleuth.com/cansizesequivalents.htm Moron...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_can

LOL So kitchen people designed these can sizes?
http://www.cancentral.com/standard.cfmhttp://www.cancentral.com/standard.cfm
Moron.

Which is why
home cooks/bakers have so much trouble with measuring, their recipes
use *******ized quantities which are difficult to eyeball....
professionals don't use measuring cups/spoons, they don't even have any
in their kitchens. Professional cooks and bakers when they do measure
use the cans their ingredients come in, ie. a 6oz tomato paste can can
be used to scale both six ounces and three ounces... when the can is
tipped until the ingredient just touch the upper inner bottom and the
lower outer top then that is a half can or 3 ounces.... and so on with
8oz cans and other sizes.

Blah, blah, blah... Check what Cookie Katz says against a
recipe that a professional would use - above - and see how
reliable his pronouncements are.

I can't begin to imagine what kind of professional bakery he
fantasizes about that uses 6-ounce cans of anything. Wet
ingredients used in professional bakeries come in 5-gallon
pails, and on up to 55 gallon drums. Some seriously big
operations get tankers.

Bakers especially do not measure to minute
amounts, that's why many recipes call for "bench flour", professionals
always hold back some of each dry ingredient... they intuitively know
that they can always add more but can't take any out. And for small
quantites, like salt, baking powder, spices, they use their hands...

Notice how, above, they exactly *don't* "use their hands"
but a very accurate scale. Moron Shecky has not the remotest
idea of how critical professional kitchens are about
formulations, nor about the sheer volume of materials that
flow through in any given day. 6-ounce cans, indeed. But
what to expect from a senile ex-Navy cook?

We used to bake 70 dozen rolls a day. 20 to 30 pies a day.
20 dozen biscuits a day. 200 to 300 cookies a day. 40
baguettes. 30 loaves of signature sandwich breads. 15 to 30
cakes a day. 50 bread bowls for soups and chili. And other
custom baked goods for banquets and catering events. While I
have no doubt that it could all fit into Sheldon's mouth at
once, it's more than he's baked in his entire amateur cook's
life.

Pastorio