Banana Bread

On Friday night I bought a camera, so now I can actually take pictures of the things I bake. I've made so many different recipes since I started this blog thinking I would eventually find my camera. Obviously I didn't, and on Friday I gave in and bought an "Open Item" camera from Best Buy. It's amazing and pink! If I could take a picture of it I would, maybe I'll see if I can find a picture or it online or something. I'll look for the next post.

Anywho, in honor of this glorious new camera of mine, I decided to bake on Saturday morning when I woke up so I could finally post for real on here. After about fifteen minutes of looking through the cabinets and deciding what I wanted to make I saw the bananas on top of the fridge.  They were almost entirely brown and I figured I'd better use them before they were totally useless. So I made banana muffins and a small loaf of banana bread for John (my boyfriend for anyone who doesn't know me who might happen to be reading this). Now I know that there are tons of food blogs out there with all different kinds of banana bread recipes on them, but I feel like so many of them get too fancy. I just wanted plain old banana bread, no streusel topping or oatmeal filling for me, no-sir-ee, which is why I went with a recipe from Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook, which my Nana gave me when I was about ten. This cookbook has one recipe for every letter of the alphabet and B is Banana Bread, the most delicious and moist (moist...moist...moist...I hope there are some How I Met Your Mother lovers reading this...) banana bread I've ever had.

I haven't quite decided what set up I like for each post, so the first few are going to be trial runs, please let me know which one you like the best. :)

You will need: 

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour (I use all-purpose for everything...I mean it is "all-purpose")
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 salt
• 1/2 cup of nuts if you want (I would have used them but I didn't have any on hand)

You're also going to need a fork, measuring cups and measuring spoons, a plate and something to mix everything with. I used my Kitchen-Aid with the paddle attachment, but a hand mixer or even a wooden spoon with a bowl work fine.

Yep, that's the temperature you need to set your oven to, 325 degrees for those of you who don't know how to read that...then again, if you don't know how to read that I really don't think you should be doing any kind of baking or using the oven at all for that matter.

Next you'll want to grease a 12-yield muffin pan and a mini loaf pan. I'm not sure how big the one I used is, but there was only enough batter left for that size, so if you want a mini loaf you can figure the size out, otherwise just grease a 6-yield pan.

Now for the fun part, getting to actually make the batter.  Mash the bananas on the plate with the fork, or a potato masher if you'd rather, but really I've found the fork works better and it's much easier to clean. Then combine the sugar, bananas, oil and eggs in the bowl and mix until well combined. Then add in the flour about 1/4 cup at a time, and the rest of the ingredients. Be careful not to mix up the baking soda and baking powder amounts. Bad things happen and bad tastes result when you do. Trust me. When everything is all combined it should look like this:

Once it looks like this you can pour it into the pans that you're using. I poured it into a  liquid measuring cup first because I think it's easier to pour that way, but you can use a ladle or do it however you usually would.  I filled the muffin pans almost to the top. I know most people would yell and say "What are you doing?! They're going to overflow and get my oven all gross!" but trust me they won't and they puff up nicely.

When you're all done filling the pans put them on a rack in the middle of your nicely preheated oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.  My muffins only need 16 minutes, but my loaf needed about 22 minutes. It also depends on the oven, so you can do what I do, set it for 15 minutes and when it goes off check them. If the toothpick comes out really wet set it for 5 minutes again and check again. If its only kind of wet, just set it for 2 minutes and see what happens. When they are all done, put the pans on a cooling rack, don't leave them on the stove, because they'll still cook a little bit because of the heat. The recipe says to "cool completely before slicing," I say that's retarded give them enough time so you can touch them long enough to pull one out of the pan and then go for. I love them sliced with butter. So delicious. Mmm... This is the finished product:

There are no more muffins left. I ate the last one this morning for breakfast. That's how good these things are. Mmm...<3

Finals really burn my cookies.

Well, finals week is in full swing, and for me that means papers, Papers, PAPERS! Three to be exact, and three more if I have time (sort of extra credit, but not really). Now, I guess I should clarify the title of this post; it's not so much finals that burns my cookies, but the fact that they all happen in the same week. Really now, who has time to do everything all at once. And let's get one thing straight, I may have papers to write but they were all assigned on Friday, so it's not like I've been putting them off. Believe me, if I could procrastinate I would. There is nothing I want more than to get into the kitchen and bake cakes, cupcakes, cookies, breads, pies, ANYTHING to avoid writing these ridiculous papers and studying for calc. BLEGH. I'm pretty sure there is nothing in the world I hate more than calculus. Seriously math majors, why do you enjoy it so? Especially derivatives; those make less sense than putting garlic on bananas. (Gross!) But I digress. Finals cause too much stress, which I'm sure doesn't improve grades at all.  The stress that people on campus are under is almost tangible when you walk into the library. There are huge lines of people waiting for computers and their turn at the printers, and believe me, it's not like UMass has a shortage of computers. Students are slumped over books, and nearly going blind from staring at computer screens for so long that everything starts to blurr. I really think the way finals are handled needs to change. It's bad enough that throughout the entire semester people are often given more work (readings, projects, papers) than they can handle all at once, why is it necessary to give even more right at the end of the semester when everyone just wants break to start? On top of all the finals people have, they need to go to work as well. I personally, cannot afford to miss an entire week of work. I work two jobs and still barely make enough to get by, missing a week is not an option. So between the studying I have to do and the papers I have to write I also have to find time to work. Finals, whether they are papers, projects or exams should be more spread out. Dedicate two weeks at the end of the semester to finals rather than one, or make final papers due during the last week of classes instead of during finals week when people need to study. Really, these are simple solutions to the horrible, horrible time that is finals week.

This was quite a rant, and I can assure you my posts from now on will not be like this, but really, finals week seriously burns my cookies. Baking relaxes me and not having enough time for it during the most stressfull week of the semester is just no good in my cookbook.