My spouse is, at the nubile age of 58, exploring the world of culinary arts.  (Read: He has discovered the “anybody can do it” educational wonders of YouTube and is learning how to cook.  😉 )

Mostly, this means he now knows how to sear himself a tasty steak.

Tasty cakes, on the other hand, are a little outside his comfort zone.

HOWEVER

Banana Bread is not exactly ‘cake’.  And he really wanted to make some.

And so, under wifely supervision (“Look, I’m cooking!” he says; “No Smotchy dearest, you’re baking.  There’s a difference…”), with a recipe that pretty much can’t be wrecked no matter how hard you try, my husband tried his hand at bread baking:

^Not bad for a first try.^

If you’d like to try your own hand at a fairly un-screwup-able banana bread, the recipe is below.

🙂

BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 large overripe bananas
1/2 Cup soy milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 cups flour

Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar, then mix in eggs and soy milk.
2. Mash bananas into the mix.  (An old-fashioned potato masher works great for this.)
3. Stir in soda, salt, and nutmeg.
4. Gradually add flour approximately one cup at a time until batter is dense but still moist.  (Depending on the size of your bananas, you may need slightly more or slightly less flour.)
5. Pour dough into two greased and floured bread pans (or, use one double-loaf pan) and bake at 350°F for 70 minutes.

Once it’s cooled, slice and enjoy!

Substitutions:  This recipe calls for soy milk; dairy (cow) milk and almond milk work just as well.  Non-dairy margarine or shortening can be substituted for butter.  Arthur’s gluten-free flour substitutes well for regular flour and does not require measurement alterations.  If you need to use more bananas (because, brown: eeeuw), one or two can be accommodated.  Just lessen the amount of flour by approximately 1/2 cup per banana.

NEWBIE NOTES:  Quick breads, which is how most ‘fruit breads‘ are categorized, tend to require minimal time (thus the ‘quick’ label) and yield maximum (read: YUM) results.  They do not require yeast and do not need to be kneaded.  (“Oh, how wish someone kneaded me!” lamented the perpetually single Dough.  😛 )  It’s basically a matter of throwing together ingredients, baking for the required time, and munching on the results.  These kinds of breads are great ‘starter’ recipes for anyone teaching/learning to bake.

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SEE ALSO:   If food is your thing, please check out Jz’s blog, A Reluctant Bitch, as she is an adult-content-friendly blogger who has focused her A to Z blog posts on the subject (causing relationship rumbles and bridging political divides along her merry way).  🙂

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To see all my A to Z posts, click here.  Or, to view a comprehensive list of participants who signed on to the challenge, see here.

Tomorrow is the last day of this ABC project.  Hope to ‘Z’ you then!