Breaking the Curse
If you look in my freezer in any given week you will see bananas. I put them in there because they tend not to get eaten in time for them to still look like bananas. Once they are in the freezer, they are a testament to the minimal baking that I do. I move them around to make room for other things. I look at them when the door is open and make (another) mental note to use them up. But sometimes it is months before I do. This week, however, when I was snow-bound, I needed an excuse to use the oven. So out came the bananas.
I decided on banana bread. It was a calculated decision. The recipe required the oven to be on for a full hour, whereas muffins only call for 25 minutes. Did I mention that our pipes had frozen in the wash-up area during the deep freeze? I didn't want to use any more dishes than I had to, and it's a lot more work to clean up muffin tins in a little tiny sink, than one loaf pan. Plus, an hour of heat was going to do a lot more good than 25 minutes.
My track record with banana bread is sketchy. In my long career as chief cook and bottle-washer, I have only made banana bread about three times. Every time, the loaves came out a bit undercooked, even though I baked them for the prescribed time. There was always a layer of barely cooked batter. And no one would eat it. So I decided making banana bread was not going on my resume, and I stopped trying. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
I went online to find a recipe. The first one gave a nutrition count. It used two eggs and had a very high fat content. I only had one egg. And I didn't want to know about the fat content, so I found one that called for one egg and boasted no nutrition chart. - What I didn't know wasn't going to hurt me.- I started in on the recipe. It was easy to follow. Another advantage to making this recipe was that I got to use this very cool tool my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. It mashed and smashed, and before I knew it, the loaf was ready to put in the pan.
The recipe called for baking the loaf for one hour. But, when the house is cold, there is just a little more motivation to keep the heat going for just a little longer. I left it in for ten minutes more. And it was just perfect. No doughy bits at all. Not only that, but when I cut into it, the crust was just a little crunchy - as if it had been sprinkled with crunchy dust by the baking fairy. MMMMMM. I helped myself to a couple of pieces.
When my #2 son arrived home from a hard day at school, he saw the banana bread out on the counter. He had a piece. Frankly, this surprised me, because when I make banana muffins, he doesn't eat them. It's like there's a sign on them "Caution: made with dirt". But maybe he was a little desperate too. He tried the bread, and then tried it again. Later on that evening, when I went to find the loaf, it was gone. I asked him if he knew where it went, and he replied with that slow smile of his. "I ate the rest of it".
I decided that was a success. I added it to my book for future reference. Winter is not over yet.
P.S. If you wantmy the recipe? Here's the link: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/
P.P. S. I think the secret to the crunchy crust is sprinkling the baking soda and salt over the batter instead of mixing it in with the flour.
I decided on banana bread. It was a calculated decision. The recipe required the oven to be on for a full hour, whereas muffins only call for 25 minutes. Did I mention that our pipes had frozen in the wash-up area during the deep freeze? I didn't want to use any more dishes than I had to, and it's a lot more work to clean up muffin tins in a little tiny sink, than one loaf pan. Plus, an hour of heat was going to do a lot more good than 25 minutes.
My track record with banana bread is sketchy. In my long career as chief cook and bottle-washer, I have only made banana bread about three times. Every time, the loaves came out a bit undercooked, even though I baked them for the prescribed time. There was always a layer of barely cooked batter. And no one would eat it. So I decided making banana bread was not going on my resume, and I stopped trying. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
I went online to find a recipe. The first one gave a nutrition count. It used two eggs and had a very high fat content. I only had one egg. And I didn't want to know about the fat content, so I found one that called for one egg and boasted no nutrition chart. - What I didn't know wasn't going to hurt me.- I started in on the recipe. It was easy to follow. Another advantage to making this recipe was that I got to use this very cool tool my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. It mashed and smashed, and before I knew it, the loaf was ready to put in the pan.The recipe called for baking the loaf for one hour. But, when the house is cold, there is just a little more motivation to keep the heat going for just a little longer. I left it in for ten minutes more. And it was just perfect. No doughy bits at all. Not only that, but when I cut into it, the crust was just a little crunchy - as if it had been sprinkled with crunchy dust by the baking fairy. MMMMMM. I helped myself to a couple of pieces.
When my #2 son arrived home from a hard day at school, he saw the banana bread out on the counter. He had a piece. Frankly, this surprised me, because when I make banana muffins, he doesn't eat them. It's like there's a sign on them "Caution: made with dirt". But maybe he was a little desperate too. He tried the bread, and then tried it again. Later on that evening, when I went to find the loaf, it was gone. I asked him if he knew where it went, and he replied with that slow smile of his. "I ate the rest of it".
I decided that was a success. I added it to my book for future reference. Winter is not over yet.
P.S. If you want
P.P. S. I think the secret to the crunchy crust is sprinkling the baking soda and salt over the batter instead of mixing it in with the flour.
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