Banana Bread: From Scratch!

Surprise! Another post this week from Natalie's kitchen at home since school still hasn't started. What to do with myself in some house that contains bananas and some baking stuff? I decided, while running on leftover tacos and a Flu vaccine, to bake banana bread from scratch! How adventurous! 

This recipe is a classic and it's always pretty fun to do, and usually ends up tasting amazing. Well, it calls for a Midwestern amount of refined sugar, and alas, all I had was a bit of Turbinado from Trader Joe's. A bit. So I used what I had, but what to do about the three thirds of a cup of missing sweetness? Health-nut soccer moms replace sugar with applesauce all the time when baking, right? Okay, cool. Me too.

Look, I'm a NorCal chef!

The next step was to cream the sugar together with an entire stick of butter (I lied about Paula Deen), but the difference in ingredients made it a little strange. I whipped the mixture for many minutes until I received a bowl of tiny, confetti-esque butter particles held together by applesauce. This, obviously, meant I should be completely confident! So I continued to whip up two more bowls of dry (flour, salt, etc) and wet (bananas, eggs, etc) ingredients. So much fun!

Three is a crowd ;)

It only took me six years a bit of effort to mix ALL of these ingredients into the same red bowl. Especially since I was a bit distracted, trying to watch Breaking Bad and then Arrested  Development at the same time. Which was a HUGE mistake, these shows should NEVER be watched while cooking, or doing anything else, as they deserve your FULL attention and respect. Always. Digression! Look how cute my healthy banana bread looks in its pan. It's about to get so baked.

Can has entire hour of baking time? I'm worth it.

This method turned out to be yummy in a health-foody, protein bar kind of way, but I honestly love diabetes. Next time, I'm using an entire cup and a half of unhealthy refined sugar because it's 110% worth it. And, use mushy brown bananas, it too makes all the difference in the world. Yeah yeah yeah, okay, you want the recipe, I know you're eager! 

Bowl 1: entire butter stick, and 1.5 cups of white sugar. You will love every single bite.

Bowl 2: 1.5 cups of flour, teaspoon of baking soda, dash of salt.

Bowl 3:  Three smashed ugly brown bananas, two eggs, unicorn poop, splash of vanilla extract.

Mix all bowls individually first, then combine the contents of ALL bowls into Bowl 2, or your dry ingredients bowl. Mix again till all of the lumps are gone, throw it in a greased loaf pan and bake it in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees. Here's an idea for you to try: do this exact thing, except make it into muffins! Yay muffins!

Cute, right?

See you next time I create something, and it will (most likely) be actually from my dorm in San Francisco. So long and good luck!

Tell me it's pretty!