They were there each morning when I reached for my cereal. Two pretty bananas, just begging to be peeled and chowed down on. But I spurned them, day after day, until I looked and saw they had turned brown in the time of my disregard.
Damn.
So, before the fruit flies invaded my rejected fruit, something had to be done with the bodies. Enter, grandma's banana bread recipe. As I was heating up the oven for toasting up the garlic bread, I figured tonight was a good night for it.
The interesting thing about the recipe is there isn't much sugar or fat (compared to other recipes I've seen), which creates a more wholesome, non-crumbling bread rather than light and crumbly baked good. For the process of baking my spurned fruit, I couldn't find my bread pan, so I pulled out muffin tins and my IKEA silicone muffin wraps (really happy with how well those muffin wrappers work, again and again). I didn't have shortening so I used coconut oil. I had no idea how long to bake this stuff in muffin shape, so I left them in until they turned brown, about 18 minutes in my gas oven. Result: Nummy.
Grandma's Banana-Bread-turned-Muffins:
2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup shortening (I used 1/4 coconut oil)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 banana
1/4 c sour milk (add vinegar or lemon juice to milk)
3/4 tsp soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup nuts
1/8 tsp salt
Directions: Mix all until no dry flour is visible. Put in greased bread loaf pan (makes 2 midsize loafs.) Bake at 350* for 50 minutes. If you end up making them into muffins, bake them in greased muffin tin or in muffin cups at 350* for approx. 18 minutes, or until the tops brown (makes approx 12 muffins.)
Cost Analysis:
Homemade (2 loaves): .20 flour + .20 coconut oil + .15 sugar + .20 eggs + .45 bananas + .20 milk/lemon juice + .03 soda + .07 powder + .45 nuts = $1.95
Purchased Mix (2 loaves): $2.67, + .20 eggs + .08 oil = $2.95
Purchased Pre-Made: at Winco Bakery= $2.90 each, so 2 loaves = $5.80
Ingredients Comparison:
Pillsbury Quick Bread & Muffin Mix, Banana - 14 oz boxEnriched Bleached Flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid)
Sugar
Dried Banana
Wheat Starch
Partially hydrogenated soybean oil
Dextrose
Contains 2% or less of: defatted wheat germ, baking powder (baking soda, sodium acid pyophosphate, calcium phosphate), corn starch, propylene clycol monoesters, salt, cellulose, natural and artificial flavors, mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, nonfat milk, TBHQ and citric acid (antioxidants).
And you have to add:
2 eggs
3 Tbsp oil
