OK, confession time and one of those moments that I take out the tatters of my "man card" and just leave it behind before I move onto the next sentence. I have read every one of Diane Mott Davidson's books. Yes I read culinary mysteries when I have the time. I am always waiting to find out what happens next with "Goldilocks Catering" and the mystery solving caterer.
Anyway in one of the novels, our hero breaks a murder case when she discovers a cake recipe that calls for baking soda but no acid… Of course any dunderhead would be able to take that information and find a murderer right? But it did make me take a look at my old recipe for banana bread recipe… Bananas, sugar, flour, butter, milk… Hmmm, nothing for the soda to react with. Then I remembered the nerdy kid next to me at the 7th grade science fair with his baking soda volcano. "Just pour some vinegar on top of the baking soda that I have in there and mom has a heck of a mess to clean up."
Say this just might work… So I tried the basic recipe that I had laying around and added two TBS of Balsamic Vinegar. That did it and I think that we can all agree that you can’t go wrong with a little Balsamic here is how the recipe ended up.
2 Cups Flour
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 old Bananas (well mashed)
6 TBS butter, melted then cooled
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
2 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 Cup coarsly chopped Pecans
Preheat oven to 350
Put all dry ingredients into a bowl and wisk together then set aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients together then add to the flour mixture and blend, just until they are mixed. scrape into a bread pan and bake for about 45 minutes. When it is done (poke it with a toothpick or knife and it comes out clean) remove from pan and let cool for about an hour...
How did it fare? Overall the opinions were good. Lighter, but still that hearty texture that it should be.
Note to my blogger friends. I am not ignoring you!!! I am having huge computer problems right now... the laptop hasn't booted up in about a month, I have tried everything from a system restore to reimaging the hard drive, nothing has worked. Recently my desktop has been acting as if it is posessed, (blue screens, thousands of nonsencican numbers filling the screen, random reboots etc...) I am trying to get to visit all of you but the only computer I can get to work well on-line is Kris' work laptop.
As you know, I cannot bake. I just always assumed that banana bread should be brick-like.
ReplyDeleteTKW you made me laugh! When Kris had my banana bread she asked why it was so heavy, an I looked at her like she was stark raving mad. Then I tasted her mom's banana muffins (light as a feather) and understood.
ReplyDeleteMy teenage daughter begs me not to tell her what is in anything, just in case there's a surprise (like anchovies in Cesar salad...that was upsetting) if she found out I put balsamic vinegar in her banana bread she would flip...until she tasted it! Score a point for chemistry teachers, I think the only thing we all remember is that volcano experiment!
ReplyDeleteBalsamic vinegar? Why not!! I actually like my banana bread to be heavy. My husband keeps insisting I try making it from not-so-ripe bananas. I told him I didn't think it was possible but to try it himself and I'd be the judge.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Bonnie