Location: My tiny kitchen

To All Bakers,

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever baked a cake or a bread for the first time and the result was a tremendous success? How did the experience make you feel? Before today, I thought such an experience could only be a miracle. Before today, I never thought that I can bake something for the first time and be successful at it.

But today, no, precisely at 9:24pm on March 20, 2009, a baking miracle happened to me, Christina, the dummy baker. It all started with a photo showing off a piece of delicious banana bread posted by Obsessed with Baking on Tastespotting. Following the link of the photo, I was directed to Steph’s food blog on which I found the banana bread recipe, known as the “best banana recipe from the Cook’s Illustrated”. I have always loved banana bread and have wanted to make my own for a long time. Looking the nice photos on Steph’s blog boosted my confidence and therefore I decided to give the recipe a try. The banana bread turned out to be soft, moist and tender (am I running out of adjectives here?). The recipe calls for very riped bananas which gives a strong banana flavour and keeps the texture moist. The original recipe has walnuts but I skipped them because I was lazy, and the result was unaffected. This recipe is really easy; it doesn’t ask you to take out your stand mixer and cream butter and sugar for half an hour as the first step. All ingredients can be combined in one step and the job is done.

The following is the recipe; it is very close to the version from Cook’s Illustrated:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped coarse (I skipped the walnuts)
3/4 cup sugar (I used one cup because I wanted mine to be sweeter)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tbsp of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Turn on the oven to 350F.
2. Butter and flour the bottom of a loaf pan.
3. Mix the mashed banana, eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla in a large bowl.
4. Stir the walnuts into the banana mixture (doing so will reduce the risk of over-mixing).
5. Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking soda into the banana mixture.
6. To me, this is the most crucial step in this recipe and I realized this only after baking batches and batches of chewy muffins and loaf cakes. The goal is not to over mix the flour with the wet ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, very, very, very gently mix the flour with the wet ingredients. Stop as soon as the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be chunky instead of smooth. If you have a smooth batter, then you will end up with a tough banana bread. If you are an amateur baker like me, then I sincerely wish you good luck with this step. I’m still learning to master this step myself A strange thought came to me today: could over-mixing be better prevented if I use my hands? Any thoughts?
7. Bake for 55 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean after inserted into the bread.
8. Let the bread cool in the pan; slice and serve.

I’m so happy with the results of this recipe that I can’t wait to bake another banana bread again (ET and I have quickly finished half of a loaf in just two days). I realize I have another problem: no body sells speckled bananas. I guess I better stock up on large brown bags.