Sunday Morning Banana Bread

Last week we purchased a beautiful bunch of bananas for the week and then promptly forgot about them, which means today they were perfect for banana bread. We had enough for two loaves - one for us and an extra for a grieving friend. Who doesn't feel a little better after a slice of home made banana bread?

While I have Gareth's grandmother's banana bread recipe, I opted for the recipe from The Joy of Cooking as the ancestral Dirlam recipe omits the quantity of bananas needed and how to prep them. I believe this was Edith's secret that she took to the grave with her, thus ensuring that no one else would be able to create her recipe.

The Joy of Cooking recipe is pretty straightforward and was easy to double. I'll provide the recipe for a single standard size loaf.

All ingredients need to be a room temperature. You will need:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
5 1/3 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed

Move your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat to 350. Mash your bananas and set aside. Also, lightly beat your eggs with a fork and set those aside as well.

Mashed bananas

Combine your dry ingredients except the sugar, and set that aside also.

Dry ingredients

Cream together your butter and sugar like you would do for sugar cookies, using a mixer (or if you're old school, a wooden spoon). Once the butter and sugar are creamed, gently mix in your eggs.

Butter and sugar before

Butter and sugar after

Combine your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and mix until blended. Then add your bananas and continue mixing until blended into a smooth batter. At this point, you can also fold in about 1/2 cup of nuts.

Batter

Pour the batter into a greased 8 1/2 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 for about an hour. The best way to determine if your bread is done is the toothpick test. If a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, it's done.

Let your loaf cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Banana bread

Ultimate Weekend Pancake Breakfast

Pancakes are tricky, although most people do not realize this. To get a light, fluffy pancake, you need to sacrifice flavor. But for a truly flavorful pancake, you almost always end up with something closer to a crepe. Personally, I'll take the flavor over the fluffiness. But, recently my counterpart came up with a recipe that provides both. The key - acidulation. By adding things like vinegar and cultured dairy, you give the baking powder a boost and can scale back on it a bit. You also inject the batter with a little savory zing, adding more depth to the flavor. If you serve these up right away, they are light, fluffy, and flavorful - pancake perfection.

For the batter you will need:

1 1/2 cups self rising flour
(or add two teaspoons baking powder)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup cream
1/3 cup labne (or Greek yogurt)
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix everything together, and mix it well. Use your submersion blender to truly homogenize your batter. You won't regret it.

Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes or up to 24 hours. The longer the batter rests, the fuller the flavor will be. And here's another key to flavorful pancakes - something wonderful happens when you mix eggs and flour. The longer they are exposed to each other, the richer their combined flavor. But. most of us do not want to wait a full day for our pancakes. This recipe is enough to serve two today and two again tomorrow, making it the ultimate weekend pancake breakfast recipe.

Once the batter has rested, lightly oil your omelet pan with a little light-tasting oil like grapeseed. Cook one pancake in the pan over medium-low heat. Gently check the underside and flip when it is a golden color. Continue to cook until the other side is also golden.

In the pan

Serve these bad boys up topped with fresh strawberries and maple syrup with a little bacon on the side, and enjoy your weekend.

On the plate