Harper's Kitchen: Banana Bread!

Harper's Kitchen: Banana Bread!

Now, there's this myth that Southern (American) cooks never reveal their secrets, but ih. Do you want to know the secret of fantastic banana bread? I mean, on the off chance you don't already know it?

The secret of fantastic banana bread, all other ingredients aside, is really, really, really ripe bananas.

And by really really really ripe, I mean bananas that inspire, "Ooh, time to throw that away!" impulses in nearly all of us, particularly teenagers who are a little squicky about food preparation to begin with.

So sometimes, particularly when you live with someone who loves to eat banana sandwiches, it's hard to keep bananas in the house for long periods of time. These particular bananas that I'm using tonight are left over from our trip to the Brick Lane Market three weekends ago, so they are just about right. I purposefully hung these in a plastic bag, out of the way, then kept them in the refrigerator for the last several days since I knew they were getting just about ready and I didn't want them to get all moldy on me. Now, if you don't have that kind of time-- if you want your banana bread soon, then I suggest you buy the ripest bananas you can find. You are not going to find ripe bananas in a grocery store: even over here, they sell 'em green. Go to a greengrocer, a market stand, anywhere that sells stuff off a truck, and you should be able to find what you're looking for. And if you still can't, there are still options. First, you can mush up not-ripe bananas and they will work OK; the flavour just won't be as good. The other method is to ripen the bananas in a brown paper sack. Yes, that's what I said. Put them in a brown paper sack, label them clearly with the date (because if you forget them, ew!), and leave them for a couple of days. I've always known about the seriously ripe banana thing, but it took caomhan to explain to me about ripening bananas in paper bags. Because he really is all that.

( OK, Harper: stop preaching about bananas and get on to the *recipes*! )

Note: Sweet quick breads taste better if you can stand to leave them overnight. I swear they do.

Harper's Kitchen: Banana Bread -- What Actually Happened!

Harper's Kitchen: Banana Bread -- What Actually Happened!

So, y'all know I'm a big old lazy cook, right? There I was, staring at those two recipes and quite a lot of very ripe bananas, and it was 9:30 on a school night, and I asked myself, "O Harper, do you really want to stay up half the night and make two distinctly different kinds of banana bread?"

Well, no. No, I did not. But I did very much want that maple flavour in the banana bread, so here's what happened:

( I took: )

( And then: )

( After that...... )

I'll let you know how this little experiment turns out. If nothing else, it'll be fairly easy to let the loaves sit overnight! ;-)