Blueberry Banana Bread - Fail and Recover

There is a reason many chefs prefer to be savoury chefs and not bakers or pastry chefs : the inability to taste.  When you are preparing a stir-fry or pasta you can taste the sauce, add a little salt as needed and you are good to go.   When baking most breads or cakes you don't really know if they turn out well until you get to slice or cut into it and dive in.   Wouldn't that be a shame if you had baked a beautiful blueberry banana bread and bring it up to the cottage to only slice it, bite and discover something isn't quite right.  How on earth could I forget the sugar!! Yep, blog fail.  The interesting thing was the bread looked absolutely perfect, soft and moist and loaded with blueberries.  The taste,  however of the no sugar bread was the complete opposite - terrible.   My obvious advice, don't forget the sugar in recipes when it calls for some.   I guess that is the beauty of blogging you can easily trace your steps through photography and figure out what was missing.   I did want to know if this recipe was actually any good so I re-baked it. 

Adapted from The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread

INGREDIENTS:

Do these look ripe to you?

• 2 cups  All purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup milk 
• 1 cup oats
• 2 cups (3-4) ripe mashed bananas
• 1 cup blueberries

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat the oven to 375F.  Grease/Spray a 9x13 loaf pan. 

2) Combine the oats and 1/2 cup of milk in a small bowl and let soak for 5 minutes

3) In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, oil and remaining milk.

4) In a larger bowl combine the first five ingredients and whisk together.   Make a small well. 

5) Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold together until partially moistened. Add the oats and bananas and fold together until almost combined.  

6) Add the blueberries and fold a few more times until all ingredients are just moistened. 

7) Place the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.   Bake for 10 minutes at 375F and then reduce to 350F and bake for another 40-45 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean. 

8) Remove from the oven and let the loaf cool for 10 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool further.    Eat right away or wrap tightly in plastic wrap or ziploc bag and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

The version with sugar is much better.  LOL!  I re-baked it for a girls bachorlette weekend away and it was the perfect breakfast accompaniment.  Moist and delicious with loads of blueberries. 

MEG's RATING : D-EEEE-LICIOUS!