Productive Sunday

After about a year of no significant physical exertion, I decided to get off my steadily burgeoning behind and take up my friends on their invitation for their Sunday morning activities. The only problem is that we underestimated our early-20's Saturday night abilities to wear ourselves out. I was woken up on Sunday by my friends nearly knocking my door down, all dressed in their tennis whites (it's merely an expression, none of us wore white) and ready to go.

Mental note: When playing tennis in a tropical climate, past 8 am, book the indoor courts.

After some laughable attempts on the courts, and a quick dip in the pool, we decided to reward ourselves with a heavy lunch: Kanna Curry House banana leaf rice. You have NO idea the degree of satisfaction that I derived from the experience. If suffering in the morning means I get to enjoy carbs in the afternoon, then YES, bring it on!

However, all throughout the day, I kept thinking about the differences of baking with vegetable oil and applesauce. A friend made a comment to me a while back, about substituting vegetable oil with applesauce in every recipe he tries, and I've been wondering about it ever since.

That night, after a very long jam session, I got to baking the exact same recipe, but one with vegetable oil, and the other with applesauce.

Carrot Banana Bread (as seen in this previous post, made with butter)

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil OR 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup ripe mashed bananas (from 3 medium sized bananas)
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat your oven to 180C, and grease your 5"x3" loaf pan
2. Beat the vegetable oil OR applesauce and sugar in a large mixing bowl
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking sofa, salt and cinnamon
5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating with the mashed bananas
6. Stir in the carrots and pecans with a spatula
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes
8. Cool the bread in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove onto the cooling rack and cool completely (I just left it out overnight, covered with kitchen paper)

I have to say that I prefer the texture and weight of the vegetable oil based recipe, even though the difference between the two are SO minute that you would only ever be able to tell the difference if you bake both at a time like I did.

The applesauce doesn't seem to affect the taste of the bread as much as I thought it would, however the weight is just slightly heavier than the other. Maybe I need to leave the bread in a little longer than I normally would to ensure that the batter dries completely.

Anyway, with the butter based recipe, it was a lot lighter, but also produced a more muffin-like texture. It smelled better too.

All in all, however, I'd have to say the vegetable oil makes the best bread. So I'll just go with that recipe from now on. Good to see that all three options provided good bread, though, so you're more than welcome to choose the one you prefer.

x Nabs