Sunday, September 30, 2007

Banana-Papaya Bread with Dried Figs

Banana-Papaya Bread with Dried Figs



My friend S and I decided to bake up a banana bread recently. I was in charge of getting the bananas. Somewhere along the way I got real hungry and ate 1 of the 3 bananas I was supposed to get :(.

Now armed with just 2 bananas in place of the requisite 3, I sheepishly walked over to S's house only to have her promptly come up with a solution...why we can add some papaya to it instead! I had my doubts about the papaya addition, but who was I to say anything given that I had eaten part of the MAIN ingredient..doh!

The end result was that the papaya complimented the bananas just perfectly in this simple yet very tasty banana bread. We eventually got so excited that we started experimenting with chocolate chips in the 2nd loaf (bad idea so won't provide that recipe here ;).

This banana-papaya bread goes to Ahaar's JFI: Bananas event originally conceptualized by the amazing Indira!

Banana-Papaya Bread

Ingredients
1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 2 cups over ripe bananas, mashed well
3. 1 cup ripe papaya, mashed (optional, you can replace this with 1/2 cup of mashed banana)
4. 1 teaspoon baking soda
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/2 cup butter (you can replace this with olive oil for a healthier version)
7. 3/4 cup brown sugar
8. 2 eggs, beaten (feel free to use 2 cups of ostrich egg ;))
9. 1/2 cup dried figs or any other nuts/dried fruit you have at hand

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven at 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar
3. Stir in eggs, mashed bananas, papaya and dried fig until well blended
4. Gently stir this mixture into flour mixture where it just moistens
5. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes or until brown.Insert a toothpick into center of the loaf, where if it comes out clean, the bread is ready to eat!
7. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove, slice and eat
Enjoy :)

16 comments:

Rajitha said...

wow..that is cool... i think all great recipes are born on account of screw-ups ;)

arundati said...

i was just wondering if i could use papaya in baking...and then i saw this post!! since i have been baking over the last few weeks, this makes me all excited!! thanks!!

Dhana said...

Rajitha, couldn't agree more! I think accidents more than necessity is the mother of all inventions ;).

Arundhati, do let me know how your papaya baking turns out. The papaya in the banana bread worked out quite well for us.

bee said...

hmm... why didn't the choc chips work? papaya is delicate and fruity at the same time.

Dhana said...

Not sure Bee. I think the mix of chocolate with the banana (though they Do go so well together usually :)) and papaya overpowered the multiple tastes there....may try just banana and chocolate next time !!

amna said...

bread looks so good. i am yet to bake my first loaf!

Cynthia said...

I like this bread-fruit combo.

Dhana said...

Thanks Nag. You should try it, its a lot of fun! Should have seen my 1st bread baking experiment. Its just too hilarious for words..I may write about it soon if I can get over the embarrassment ;)..hehe

Ooh Cynthia, speaking of bread fruit, have you tried the breadfruit..I had my 1st taste of it in Hawaii!

Swaruchy said...

wow Dhana.....The bread looks awesome dear.....fluffy and soft :-) Nice :-)

Namratha said...

Banana and Papaya..a very unique combo I must say! Bread looks great and I bet it was yum too:)

Sharmi said...

never heard of papaya bread. looks delicious!

Laavanya said...

Wow papaya in bread... never thought of it. Good to see that it worked out well. Banana and choc chips do go together normally.. you may be right about the papaya messing it up. :)

Dhana said...

Thanks Sirisha. Loved ur Amish bread as well!

Namratha, unique and accidental ;). Thankfully turned out to be a happy ending !!

Sharmi & Lavanya, we hadn't heard of papaya bread either....you never know what one can invent when one eats up the main ingredient ;)

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recipe. I just started eating Papaya in my fresh juices with mango and lime. I want to bake with the papaya now. Do you have a papaya cake recipe? I'm converting carrot cake recipes for papaya cake recipes. I'll take any suggestions. Thanks again.

foundcity said...

Thanks for your recipe! I am waiting for it to come out of the oven and am excited to see how it turns out!