Turns out they were organic bananas: brown, mushy, and way past their prime.
Subsequent investigation unearthed the reason for their languishing amidst the lemons, clementines, Williams pears, and Gala apples (new! improved! snack-sized!). Sir thought I had designs on them (why he thought this I have no idea: I never eat bananas out of hand - they're fattening, you know - and two is far too few to be of any practical use for chutney or jam-making). For my own part, I always assume fruit on the kitchen table is for general consumption and rely upon Sir to make steady progress through the pile as the week progresses. Somehow these two horrible specimens had wormed their way through the family net, with the unfortunate result that at any moment the juices of their decomposition would start to stain my booteek renewably-harvested rainforest-wood fruit bowl.
Banana bread! What better way to spend flocculating time, after all, than engaged in an exciting new gluten-free baking adventure?
To be fair, I wouldn't describe much of my baking as experimental at present. As a result of a number of disasters, near-misses, and - yes - successes, too, I am now reasonably adept at scanning potential recipes for gluten-free pitfalls. These days I rarely do the math required by the ever-valuable high-ratio method, but am fairly good at eye-balling ingredients and their proportions for judging the degree to which they will prove suitable for The Struggle. I try to make sure there's a good deal of fat and sugar in the mix, sufficient eggs for binding, and I am always happy to see an addition that possesses some moisture and heft - apple sauce, say, or bananas.
I went to the repository of all wisdom and knowledge for recipes Américaines, Irma Bombauer (aka 'Mrs. Joy'). She didn't let me down and in a trice the kitchen was filled with the heady aroma of good things baking in the oven. The result was nicely-risen, moistly sliceable, and delicious in the way that only something utterly free of xanthan and guar gums has the capacity to be.
We ate warm slices with butter and home-made fig jam amidst much rejoicing.
And my cheese never even noticed I was gone.
Gluten-Free Banana Bread After Mrs. Joy
- six tablespoons softened butter
- two-thirds cups granulated sugar
- one and one-third cups King Arthur gluten-free multi-purpose flour (the only kind I use!)
- one-half teaspoon salt
- one-half teaspoon baking soda
- one-quarter teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
- 2 very, very ripe bananas
Preheat your oven to 350 deg F and butter a 6-cup loaf pan.
Beat together the butter and sugar. I tried to use my new electric handmixer for this job - purchased after many months' worth of comparison shopping - and found it woefully underpowered for the task. Disaster! I was forced to drag my standmixer from its place on the Metro shelves and my bread production proceeded with no subsequent snafus.
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add this to your butter/sugar, beating madly all the while. Mrs. Joy characterizes the resulting substance as 'the consistency of brown sugar' and I am obliged to agree.
Beat in the two eggs (the mixture was still disturbingly stiff and dry at this point) followed by the bananas (Eureka! bananabatter!).
Glop the batter into your prepared pan and bake it in the bottom third of your oven for an hour or so or until it's cooked. Cool on a wire rack. The bread is excellent as is on the first day, but like many g/f productions doesn't hold brilliantly. On the second day Sir toasted a slice and declared it perfection, while I heated some up in the microwave - also a successful strategy. It was still pretty good, heated, on the third day.
No comments:
Post a Comment