Rice Cooker Banana Bread

circle3's Note:

Banana bread is a favorite everywhere apparently! So if you have some old ripe banana's and a rice cooker you are on your way to a great treat. This recipe was adapted from one I saw in Japan. Asian banana's are much sweeter and smaller than the commercial ones found in North America or Europe so the sugar has been turned down in this recipe. If you like yours a bit sweeter substitute brown sugar for white sugar. Your banana's need to be very soft to touch, with black skins or very spotted to make this taste the best. If you do not have access to baking soda you may omit or substitute with 1/2 teaspoon more baking powder. Powdered milk is ok for this recipe if fresh milk is not available.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 40 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12-16

Yield: 1.0 cake

• 1 ½ cups flour (white or whole wheat works ok)
• ½ cup sugar (white or brown)
• 2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder (non aluminum if possible)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 ½ cups bananas (5 small asian or ladyfinger banana's or 2 big ones, mash them inside a freezer bag to keep your mess)
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup milk
• 1⁄3; cup sunflower oil (any oil will work)
• ½ cup walnuts (chopped) (optional)
• 1⁄8; cup powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients (except powdered sugar) and mix well.
2. Add the wet materials from recipe on top of the dry mixture and mix until lumpy smooth.
3. Add nuts to mixture if desired and stir to distribute through batter.
4. Lightly oil or spray inside of cooker bowl with oil.
5. Pour batter into cooker bowl.
6. Set cooker for slow (if yours allow this) and press start.
7. Cooker will normally shut off after a few minutes, just wait about 5 minutes an restart it.
8. Cook for about 90 minutes or 2 normal rice cycles ( your time may vary).
9. Check bread after 60 minutes for status.
10. Bread is finished when tooth pick comes out clean from center and mid center of bread.
11. Take pan out of cooker and let cool for 20 minutes.
12. Put plate over top of cooker bowl and invert quickly to transfer cake to plate.
13. Dust top of bread with powdered sugar when cooled to finish the bread.
14. Serve slightly warm or cold.

Reviews

[Chef Regina V. Smith]

I was having a craving for banana bread. My oven is broken and my bread maker padle has seized up, so.... I found this recipe and decided to give it a try. I did, end up with a loaf of banana bread. This is hard to rate. The recipe gets points for novelty of preparation, but the rice cooker did in fact turn itself off every few minutes, so for the entire cooking time, I was required to remain "on alert" to turn it back on every five minutes. So it loses a point for fussiness. (This might be a good job for one of your kids to take charge of...) I was sceptical until about 45 minutes in, when my kitchen start to smell like banana bread! My loaf took 80 minutes to cook. It turned out of the non stick coated rice cooker like a dream and made a nice presentation with the sifted sugar on top. It was not overly sweet. I used dark brown sugar and I would suggest using a heaping 1/2 cup of sugar the next time. I also used sour cream instead of the 1/4 cup of milk. In the end, I got my banana bread fix and life was good. Thanks for posting this novel recipe Circle3.