The first video we made with this recipe was sponsored by Kroger. However all opinions expressed here are my own.
Tres leches cake and banana bread are emblematic desserts. Tres leches cake is, for sure, one of the favorites of Latino homes, while banana bread’s popularity extends across all the American continent, from the US to South America.
Both desserts are deeply rooted in tradition, and they’re among my favorites.
In this recipe, I combined both and it went very well. This unique dessert offers a delightful balance between the fruity and spongy banana bread and the moisty sweetness of tres leches cake.
So, I encourage you to try it at home and to share it with your loved ones.
A short history of Tres Leches cake and Banana bread
Curiously, historians link both desserts with reducing food waste and marketing campaigns for baking products.
Tres leches cake, for instance, is linked with the promotion of evaporated and condensed milk during the early XX century. Likewise, it seems that banana bread’s popularity rose in the 1930s thanks to heavily advertised baking products like baking powder and baking soda.
In terms of reducing food waste, banana bread was a great solution to use ripe bananas and avoid throwing them away. Similarly, some authors track tres leches cake origins back to the medieval English trifle cake.
According to historians, the trifle cake, and most soaked cakes became popular among housewives looking to repurpose old or stale cakes.
Sure, this is surprising, because tres leches cake has always been made fresh for us, but it’s still quite interesting.
Don’t you think?
Now, check the recipe below and jot down everything you need to make this delicious dessert at home.
Tres leches banana bread
Ingredients
- 2½ bananas, mashed
- 2½ cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 tsps of baking powder
- ½ tsp of salt
- 6 large eggs (egg whites, and yolks separated)
- ¾ cup of white cane sugar
- ½ cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup of brown sugar
- 1½ tsp of vanilla
- ⅔ cup of whole milk.
Tres leches mix
- 1½ cups of whole milk
- 14 oz of sweetened and condensed milk
- 12 oz of evaporated milk
Italian meringue ("Lustre")
- 1½ cups of white cane sugar diluted in ½ cup of water to make the initial syrup
- 4 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 lemon's juice
- Maraschino cherries, for garnish
Instructions
- Mash the ripe bananas.
- In a separate bowl mix the butter, brown sugar, and white cane sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Save the egg whites for the Italian meringue.
- Sieve in a separate bowl the dry ingredients: baking powder, flour, and salt.
- Beat the egg whites medium-stiff separately to obtain that “tres leches” porous consistency. In this way, your banana bread will absorb the milky essence of the "tres leches" mix. Stop once the egg whites grow medium-stiff peaks.
- Grease your mold with oil or butter.
- Beat the yolks in the wet mix, add the mashed bananas, and half of the dry mix, and a bit of whole milk.
- After mixing a bit, add the rest of the dry mix and the whole milk.
- Fold the egg whites with a spatula and mix everything with encircling movements. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be completely mixed.
- Add the mix to the mold and fill it halfway.
- Bake this in a preheated oven to 350°F or 176°C for approximately 35 to 40 mins.
"Tres leches" mix
- While that’s baking, make the “tres leches” mix.
- Add whole milk, evaporated milk, and condensed milk into a large measuring cup. Now, mix this well and leave it aside.
- Take the banana bread out of the oven and make holes in it with a fork. Then, let it cool for 20 minutes.
- Once it's at room temperature, soak it with the milk mix and leave it in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
- Just before you take your dessert out of the fridge, you can do the frosting.
Frosting | Italian meringue | "Lustre"
- The traditional “tres leches” frosting is an Italian meringue -In Honduras, we know it as "lustre".
- To make the sugar syrup add sugar and water to a pot. Now, without mixing it, cook on medium heat until it reaches 240°F or 115°C.
- While that’s heating up, add your room temperature egg whites to a mixer.
- You can do it with a hand mixer, but beat them really fast with some lemon juice. That will help to stabilize them.
- When the egg whites have grown and the sugar syrup is ready remove it from the heat. Then, add the syrup slowly to the egg whites.
- To decorate your banana bread transfer it carefully to a plate. It should look completely soaked with the "tres leches" mix already. Now, add the frosting only on top, and spread it with a small spatula until it’s smooth. Then literally add “the cherry on top”, it's the final touch, with such a beautiful color.
- Then, serve and enjoy your gorgeous tres leches banana bread!
Video
Notes
If you liked this Tres leches banana bread recipe, you might like some of my other recipes too.
And remember, if you try this recipe and want to share your pictures, tag me @lacooquette on Instagram. I’d love to share your pictures on my IG stories.
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