Banana Bread I

I've been on a banana kick lately. Which means that inevitably I'm going to have at least two over-ripe bananas sitting in my refrigerator...and probably on multiple occasions. Which means that I'm going to have to use those over-ripe bananas to keep from feeling guilty about getting rid of perfectly good produce. This is where banana bread comes in. I love the stuff, and I always have all of the ingredients on hand (except for the bananas, of course). About a week ago I made my first batch in months. I used Pamela's gluten-free baking mix and the recipe found on her site. I'm pretty sure I've made this recipe before, but it turned out differently this time.

Pamela's Banana Bread (www.pamelasproducts.com)

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted 
• 1/2 cup sugar or honey 
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup banana, mashed
• 1-3/4 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Beat together butter, sugar or honey, eggs and banana. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. Pour into a large greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.


The dough ended up pretty thick, which wasn't surprising, and made enough for one small loaf.

You can kinda see in the pic - I left the bananas kinda chunky for this batch. No particular reason, just felt like it at the time.

Baked it for about an hour and ten minutes (I've found that cooking gluten-free usually takes longer than it says it's going to), and it turned out like this:

I baked this at about 9:00 PM and had eaten a big dinner, so I had to let it sit there and cool completely without snagging a piece. Brutal. The next morning I sliced up a couple of pieces to have with my coffee (one of my favorite parts of my weekend - my morning coffee at home) and it was yummy.

Sometimes I like just heating up my breakfast breads in the microwave, but this time I stuck it in the toaster oven and it got that beautiful brown crust on it. Mmmm. Slathered it with butter and I was in heaven. 

What was interesting about this batch of bread was that it was very dense. I don't remember it being that way before. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. Once I toasted it up, though, it was almost like a banana bagel - crispy on the outer edges and chewy in the middle. The Hubby wasn't a big fan (he said it  tasted gluten-free, which I don't think it did at all), but I thought it was great. I am going to try to make a lighter version, though, just not sure how quite yet. 

I see banana bread in my future (again)...there ARE bananas in my fridge...

Kelly

Pancakes!

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been craving pancakes for a while. Well, The Hubby came through for me and made me some heavenly apple-cinnamon pancakes for breakfast yesterday. It was a team effort - I made the batter and he actually cooked them. I've tried to make pancakes several times over the course of my life, and have failed miserably every single time. I think it's the flipping - anything that requires any sort of coordination usually ends in disaster when I come close to it. Anyway...I used Pamela's Gluten Free Baking and Pancake Mix (it has never let me down) and a variation of the pancake recipe found on her site. Here's what I used (makes about 6 pancakes):

-1 cup Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
-1 large egg
-3/4 cup water
-1 tablespoon oil (I used vegetable)
-1 grated granny smith apple (I literally just used a cheese grater - it was messy, and I'm not sure if that was technically the correct tool for this, but it worked)
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I always forget I don't have nutmeg but I have this - it was perfect)
-1 teaspoon vanilla

The initial batter was pretty thick, but we tried it out anyway with one test cake. It didn't cook quite right, but I must say, it was still pretty delicious.

It was a little raw in the middle (you can really see it in the bite on the right) from the batter being too thick to really spread out at all, so we added a little bit more water. It was still thicker than "normal" pancake mix, but as I've learned, gluten free batters and doughs are the exact opposite in consistency as their gluten-filled counterparts (batters are usually thick and doughs are often thin and runny), so I wasn't concerned. You can get an idea of the thickness of the batter right after The Hubby got the next round on the griddle:

At this point I was satisfied with how everything was going, so I grabbed my coffee mug (full of "Cookiedoodle" hazelnut cinnamon coffee with vanilla sugar-free creamer....yummy) and let The Hubby do his thing. I walked back in a few minutes later to this beautiful sight:

Wow! I was pretty excited at this point, and promptly began salivating at the idea of tasting these perfectly browned pieces of amazingness. Drum roll please...

Ta da! I was not disappointed. They tasted just as good as they looked. Dense but still fluffy, sweet but not too sweet, a little bit of tart here and there from the fresh apple, the warm flavors of cinnamon and vanilla and touches of clove, ginger, and nutmeg from the pumpkin pie spice...and a little bit of a crust formed on each side...perfect! There were two left over (I had completely forgotten that The Hubby doesn't even like pancakes that much, so he only had one. Bad wife.), so I had one for breakfast this morning. I tasted it cold (I used to LOVE cold pancakes right out of the fridge when we had leftovers when I was growing up) and it was still delicious. I ended up zapping it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and ate it dry - and it was the perfect quick breakfast for a busy morning. I have one more left...mmmm.

I can't tell you how exciting it was that these pancakes turned out so well. I've had many an inedible gluten free adventure, but this one was just delightful. :)

Craving pancakes yet?
Kelly