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Continuing Adventures in Banana Bread
Dec. 22nd, 2019 11:33 amI have acquired oat flour, and so it is time for Alton Brown's banana bread recipe to make an appearance!
This is from I'm Just Here for More Food, which I haven't looked at terribly closely since acquiring it-- I got it during the move-out from the apartment before last, when the roommate it had belonged to observed that I was going to actually cook from it while he was just going to look at it, and gave it to me. (And indeed, he does not seem to have looked at it much, as it is appears new despite having spent some years before I lived there on the apartment's shared cookbook shelf.) So here I am, actually cooking from it!
This is the first of the banana bread recipes to contain almond extract, which is a new ingredient for me but one I will bear in mind for the future. Even doubled, the almond flavor is a little subtle, but it's there. Tell me, though, what is it with banana bread recipes with no spices? You cannot have a banana bread recipe that's just banana; it needs *some* flavoring agent or it's going to be bland! I added a fair amount of cinnamon and it came out quite tasty. And I'm pleased that this almond extract I bought for the sake of cranberry torte is turning out to be useful for more things than just cranberry torte, as we are coming to the end of cranberry season and I am going to be unable to make cranberry torte for a bit. (I have a giant bag of cranberries in the freezer, but that's for Fourth of July. We unfortunately do not have enough freezer for me to put up enough for them to be a year-round fruit.)
Alton Brown is very, very scientific about how he does things, sometimes to the detriment of, like, simplicity-- he calls for mixing the bananas and sugar in one bowl, the remaining wet ingredients in another bowl, and the dry ingredients in a third, and then combining the two bowls of wet ingredients with each other before combining with the dry ingredients. Needless to say I did not do this. One bowl of wet and one of dry is *already* more dishes than I like to use making stuff; I'd rather do the wet ingredients, add the small-quantity dry ingredients, and then add the flour. But I did do a wet ingredients and dry ingredients bowl for this. He also very clearly prefers you measure everything by weight, including *eggs*. (I'm not even using real eggs, so I was glad he does *include* count-and-volume measurements even if he'd so clearly prefer you not use them, because I have no idea how to translate my egg substitute to "twelve grams of eggs". I know how much is equivalent to one egg.)
It's also written like a science experiment-- you combine the things in these bowls, then combine them with the other things, with some referencing to other pages where he's discussed how to prepare a pan... I didn't have any shortening to grease the pan with, but I read his explanation of why you shouldn't do it with butter and used olive oil instead as the closest thing I had to having the desired properties. (Less protein and water.)
This is the first of the banana bread recipes to call for oat flour, and I think that's related to it being the first of the recipes to be really light and fluffy. I like the texture on this one much better than any of the other recipes.
...apparently I am evolving into a form of recipe blogger.
This is from I'm Just Here for More Food, which I haven't looked at terribly closely since acquiring it-- I got it during the move-out from the apartment before last, when the roommate it had belonged to observed that I was going to actually cook from it while he was just going to look at it, and gave it to me. (And indeed, he does not seem to have looked at it much, as it is appears new despite having spent some years before I lived there on the apartment's shared cookbook shelf.) So here I am, actually cooking from it!
This is the first of the banana bread recipes to contain almond extract, which is a new ingredient for me but one I will bear in mind for the future. Even doubled, the almond flavor is a little subtle, but it's there. Tell me, though, what is it with banana bread recipes with no spices? You cannot have a banana bread recipe that's just banana; it needs *some* flavoring agent or it's going to be bland! I added a fair amount of cinnamon and it came out quite tasty. And I'm pleased that this almond extract I bought for the sake of cranberry torte is turning out to be useful for more things than just cranberry torte, as we are coming to the end of cranberry season and I am going to be unable to make cranberry torte for a bit. (I have a giant bag of cranberries in the freezer, but that's for Fourth of July. We unfortunately do not have enough freezer for me to put up enough for them to be a year-round fruit.)
Alton Brown is very, very scientific about how he does things, sometimes to the detriment of, like, simplicity-- he calls for mixing the bananas and sugar in one bowl, the remaining wet ingredients in another bowl, and the dry ingredients in a third, and then combining the two bowls of wet ingredients with each other before combining with the dry ingredients. Needless to say I did not do this. One bowl of wet and one of dry is *already* more dishes than I like to use making stuff; I'd rather do the wet ingredients, add the small-quantity dry ingredients, and then add the flour. But I did do a wet ingredients and dry ingredients bowl for this. He also very clearly prefers you measure everything by weight, including *eggs*. (I'm not even using real eggs, so I was glad he does *include* count-and-volume measurements even if he'd so clearly prefer you not use them, because I have no idea how to translate my egg substitute to "twelve grams of eggs". I know how much is equivalent to one egg.)
It's also written like a science experiment-- you combine the things in these bowls, then combine them with the other things, with some referencing to other pages where he's discussed how to prepare a pan... I didn't have any shortening to grease the pan with, but I read his explanation of why you shouldn't do it with butter and used olive oil instead as the closest thing I had to having the desired properties. (Less protein and water.)
This is the first of the banana bread recipes to call for oat flour, and I think that's related to it being the first of the recipes to be really light and fluffy. I like the texture on this one much better than any of the other recipes.
...apparently I am evolving into a form of recipe blogger.
