Rice Cooker Baking Experiment #2: Banana Bread

November 26, 2012

The end of the year has brought lots of real world-related craziness, but a girl’s gotta eat! I tried my hand at a second rice cooker baking experiment today, so I thought I’d share the results! I love banana bread–especially when it’s super moist and banana-y. I found a super easy-looking recipe for No-Fuss Rice Cooker Banana Bread on a webzine put out by Hiroshima Prefecture’s JET Programme and adapted it slightly:

Rice Cooker Banana Bread
Adapted from The Wide Island View

Makes one round 6-inch loaf (3-cup rice cooker)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups enriched white flour
3/4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas
1/3 cups softened butter
1/4 cups milk
1 egg
A little bit of butter to grease the rice cooker pot
Optional: Walnuts, fruit, etc. to taste

Directions:

Use a paper towel to lightly grease the inside of the rice cooker pot with butter and set aside. (If you have a non-stick pot, this may not be entirely necessary–but a light coating can’t hurt.)
Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt).
Add the bananas, butter, milk, and egg and mix until thick and creamy. I cut the butter into small chunks and mashed the bananas with a potato masher beforehand and used an electric mixer, which made the process very easy. If you’re mixing by hand, you’ll want to make sure to mash/cut things up before hand.
If you’re planning on adding any optional ingredients, stir them in. I love classic banana bread, so I left it plain.
Pour the batter into the pot and start the cooker. You’ll want to cook the bread for about 1.5 hours, so you’ll need to reset your rice cooker periodically. As I did last time, I used the “cake” setting on my rice cooker, but others have made this recipe using the regular rice-cooking setting.
When the top looks cooked (as in the photo below) and an inserted fork comes out clean, the bread is done. Being mindful of the hot pot, remove it from the rice cooker and flip the final product out onto a plate. Allow to cool before slicing.

I was really happy with how the final product turned out. The top was nicely brown and it was super moist inside, with a lovely amount of banana flavor. If you like your banana bread a little more bread-like, you might want to use only two bananas (instead of three). I tend to like the sweetness in my banana bread to come from the bananas, but if you like something a little sweeter, The Wide Island View suggests using brown sugar instead of white or adding a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. But I was very pleased with my results–I’ll definitely be making this again!