Guinness Banana Nut Bread

Rita~'s Note:

Found this on line by Ken Pappenheim This came in First prize in the dessert category in the 2000 Guinness Cook-off at his local Pub. And for all of you that know me I did tweak it just a bit. Top it with this Orange Cream Cheese Frosting if your want to really bring it up a notch! Heart Optional: You can replace 1/2 cup of flour with Irish steel cut oats. I just spun them in the food processor with the sifted ingredients. Better for your heart!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 20

Yield: 2.0 loaves

• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups Guinness stout (for Vegans try this sight http ( or or homepage.ntlworld.com or geraint.bevan or Vegetarian_beers.ht)
• 2 cups broken walnuts, toasted
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger or 1 tablespoon candied ginger

Garnish

• powdered sugar

Heart Optional

• 1/2 cup oats, replaces 1/2 cup of flour with Irish steel cut oats. I just spun them in the food processor with the

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Lightly grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl cream the brown sugar, banana, eggs, vanilla and oil; set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom and cloves.
4. Alternately blend the flour mixture and the beer into the creamed mixture.
5. Stir in the walnuts, raisins, chocolate chips, and ginger to the mixture and blend well.
6. Pour into the prepared pans.
7. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
8. Leave in pan for 15 minutes to cool before turning out to cool completely on rack. Plate and dust with sugar.

Reviews

[swissms]

Lovely banana bread! This recipe saved the day. I started making bran muffins this morning at 7am and after I had mixed together the flour, 2 t. cinnamon, 2 t. baking soda and 1 c. sugar, I realized that I did not have any bran. So the search began for another recipe and I came across this one; I had most of the ingredients so only had to make a few changes. Since I had already added a greater amount of cinnamon, I reduced the other spices to 1/4 t. each based on some of the other reviews. I then used 1 c. brown sugar since I had already stirred in 1 c. granulated sugar. I only had Guinness draught. I used 2 bananas (almost 1 cup). I stirred in 2 generous tablespoons of chopped candied ginger, 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips and 1/2 c. chopped semi-sweet chocolate, 1 c. chopped toasted pecans and 1 c. raisins. I then baked it in a bundt pan for 1 hour. My husband declared this a winner! Thanks for the recipe.

[woodland hues]

I echo Dom and Amanda here. This is the most delicious banana bread that's ever come out of my kitchen. My DH was swooning over it. It's absolutely gorgeous: dark, rich, with the essential flavours of chocolate, spices, and Guinness in perfect balance. I cut back the cinnamon to 1 tsp and the cardamom to 1/2 tsp and I'll continue to use it that way. My flour was a blend of white and whole wheat. Oh, and I used candied ginger and was rather generous with it, cutting in maybe 3 tbsp. The batter was very runny and I worried about that, but it baked beautifully in 1 hour. Thanks so much for your posting, Rita!

[OneEyedDogMama]

This is a good recipe for banana bread. Nice and earthy.