Super Moist Banana Bread in a Crock Pot!

       The other day, one of our local markets had bananas on sale for 4 lbs. for .98! Such a great deal! I picked up some bananas for our family and a friend's.  My son walked in the door from school and saw them all and said, "When did we become Donkey Kong?".  (He can be quick with the wit, that one.)  Of course, I froze some bananas for smoothies, and some will become po'i. But, after Tina's post on Artisan Bread in a Crock Pot, I have been wanting to try banana bread in a crock pot.  The only problem is, every recipe I see for crock pot banana bread on Pinterest looks very dry. I have a great recipe for Super Moist Banana Bread that I make in my oven, so I thought with a couple of tweaks, I would try it in the crock pot! I must confess here that I actually turned on my oven and did a loaf in there as well as the one in my crock pot because the recipe makes two loaves and I wanted to be able to compare the outcomes. Luckily, it was cloudy outside, threatening rain, so the temperatures weren't quite as intense as they had been, (high 90s to low 100s).   So, here is how it all turned out:

       The slice on the right is the crock pot loaf, and the one on the left is the one I cooked in the oven.  You can see that the one from the crock pot is darker and more moist that the one from the oven! While it takes longer to bake in the crock pot, the outcome was delicious! My family loved and devoured both loaves of bread!  I will give you the baking instructions for the oven and for the crock pot.  That way, in the winter, when you want to warm up the house, you can use our oven.  In the summer, when you want to keep things cool, the crock pot method will be great!  

    Super Moist Banana Bread
            (Crock Pot Method)
    Spray your crock pot with cooking spray, then line it with a sheet of parchment paper, then spray again.
Set your crock pot on low heat.
     2 c. sugar
      1/2 c. shortening
      1/2 c. butter (softened)
      6 ripe bananas
      4 eggs
      2 c. +4 T. flour
      1 tsp. salt
      1 tsp. baking soda
      nuts are optional.  I didn't use any.
    
     Mash the bananas with a potato masher, then blend in the sugar, shortening and butter.  When blended well, beat in the eggs. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix well.  This recipe makes two large loaves, so you can use two crock pots to bake the bread, or bake one loaf and then the other later if you only have one crock pot.  Or, do it like I did and do one in the crock pot and one in the oven if it isn't too hot for you.  Bake in the crock pot for approx. 4 hours.  It should look firm all across the top and a toothpick or skewer should come out clean when poked in the middle. 

Here is the parchment in the crock pot. I have an oval crock pot. If your pot is bigger than mine, perhaps you could make on really big loaf, but you would have to let it cook longer.

Mashing the bananas

The batter in the crock pot

This is how it looks after about 1 1/2 of baking! You can see the edges getting brown, but the middle is soft and bubbly.

This is about 3/4 of the way finished.

This looks finished! I see a soft dot right in the middle, but I don't want the bread to dry out!

Poke it with a skewer to test it.

It came out clean!

The first hot slice of crock pot banana bread!

 Oven Directions:
The only differences are that you grease your loaf pans, (I didn't use parchment paper).  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix as directed, pour into pans and then bake for 1 hour.  It makes two large loaves and is so moist it feels sticky when you take it out of the pan.  This bread freezes well I hear, but ours never lasts long enough to find out!