I have a special bowl in the kitchen that holds some of my fresh produce. Bananas, Granny Smith apples, lemons, and the occasional orange are the usual residents. I'm very pleased with this bowl. See, it's not a typical bowl as it's square instead of round. This bowl also has a sunflower painted on the bottom of it in colors that match my new kitchen.
I also got this bowl on clearance for $4.99...regular price was $29.99.
I told you it was special.
But my bowl has a dark side. It seems that any fruit that enters the beautiful bowl, doesn't come out the same as it went in.
My Mister refers to it as "The Bowl of Death".
Personally, I think fruit is like a fine wine...the more it ages, the better it is.
Of course, I can't afford fine wine, so this is just an assumption on my part.
For me, bananas get better with age. They haven't reached their full flavor potential until there are brown spots all over them. When this happens, I peel some for the freezer and make banana bread with the rest.
One of the first recipes for banana bread that I ever received was from a lovely southern lady named Katherine. While her bread was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, it did not seem to melt off my thighs very easily. I'm not a calorie counter, a low-carber, or a non-fat foodie. I believe in eating until your satisfied, staying away from refined sugars and flours as much as possible, and slathering everything with butter. (Well, not everything. Pizza with butter is probably not a winning combination!)
Katherine's recipe called for white flour, white sugar, butter, and vegetable oil. Other recipes that I've found have had 100% whole wheat, applesauce instead of oil, egg replacer (ew!) instead of eggs, and natural sugars of honey or maple syrup. I've even seen recipes calling for Equal!
Some things are just not right.
Until now. Well, not completely right, but you'll see at the end.
Please don't judge.
Banananana Bread
~The Players~
3 large, overripe bananas, peeled
1 cup honey
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 Tb. vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups soft white wheat pastry flour (fresh ground if possible)
3/4 t. baking soda
3/4 t. sea salt
2 t. ground cinnamon
Optional: 1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts are good, but so are pecans or almonds)
In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas.
Add honey, yogurt, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter to bananas; mix well and set aside.
In a separate bowl, sift together the pastry flour, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon.
Pour flour mixture into banana mixture and stir until flour is mixed in well. Don't overmix. Fold nuts into batter.
Grease 2 loaf pans.
Bake in a 350F. oven for 60 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and let cool on wire racks.
Here's where I need to confess. I was in a hurry and didn't double-check my buttering of the loaf pans. Actually, I didn't get in a hurry until pan #2.
I'll just slap a little extra butter on this one.
Katherine would approve. ☺
Enjoy!
7 comments:
That last picture looks better than the rest. That calls for lots of extra butter, melted & drizzled & some homemade coconut ice cream.....
Oops, did I just say that aloud?
I love your special bowl....I love sunflowers.
Your soap sounds wonderful, one of these days I'll get around to giving it a try. I too want to try milk soap.
Love the bowl. You know, you don't have to peel the bananas before putting them into the freezer. You can just freeze them in their peels. It doesn't hurt them at all.
Love that you used whole wheat pastry flour! How do you get the fine ground of a pastry flour by grinding your own? I don't have a grinder (some day...), but a friend has complained that hers just won't produce a flour that fine. Any suggestions?
Blessings! ~Lisa
Lisa~My grainmill only does fine grinds, which is great for flours but not so great for coarse cornmeal. The mill I use is called an Ultramill. I've had it for 9 years and haven't had any problems with it all all. And I always sift~sometimes I add the bran back into the recipe, but if I want it to be more like white flour, I dump the bran into a jar and keep it in the fridge until needed.
We've found that a grainmill is one of the best investments we could've made. The mill paid for itself within the first 6 months and has been used for wheat, spelt, cornmeal, and bean, rice and oat flours. It also gives me a reason to visit Bob's Redmill on a regular basis! :)
When we were growing up some family friends buttered their brownies! Butter on brownies is absolutely yummy! I can't bring myself to do it now that I am an adult though!
Gotta love Bob's Red Mill! Thanks for the tip about the Ultramill. One of these days I'll own one, but until I do I'll keep buying my wwpf from Azure. Blessings, ~Lisa
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