The Occasional Baker

I’m not really much of a baker. I only make cake and cookies a few times a year, when a family member has a birthday. (Or it’s Christmas time and I need a festive family-project treat!) That’s not how it used to be, however. When I was a teenager, I would frequently bake cookies such as chocolate chip or molasses, and the crew of kid siblings and I would gobble the whole batch up for “Snack” (our mini-meal in the mid-afternoon). Looking back, I think my mom would request or encourage me to do that, more than it being totally self-initiated… but I liked working with my hands, and eating cookies, obviously, so I took it on willingly. Another thing I did as a teen was take a cake-decorating class at the local craft store. Now that was some serious fun! And it led to early design work, since I would design cakes for my family and even some of my mom’s friends for their baby showers and family reunions. Again, I’m pretty sure my mom was the mastermind behind it, because I think at least sometimes we would make from-scratch cakes and even get paid… my memory of it is a little fuzzy. But I do remember my mom’s willingness to clean up after I did all the mixing, baking, frosting making, assembling, and decorating. It thrashed the kitchen for sure! (My love of cooking did not come from Mom. She would rather clean than cook.) Fast forward to today, the scope of my baking activity is the occasional quick bread and infrequent muffins. And, I prefer them to be on the healthy side. I like to follow The Kitchn’s tips for subbing honey for sugar. I’ll demonstrate, using my favorite “Ultimate Banana Bread” recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Jul/Aug 2010 as an example.

1. Up to 1 cup, use 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup honey in place of 1 cup sugar. UBB calls for 3/4 cup brown sugar, and I replace that with 1/2 cup honey.
2. For every cup of honey, reduce other liquids in recipe by 1/4 cup. The banana bread doesn’t have any extra liquids added, except for the banana “juice” that they direct you to extract via the microwave and reduce on the stovetop to 1/4 cup. But, I don’t want to cut back that element because it’s a way to bump up the banana flavor. So, I came up with my own trick:
3. Use some whole wheat flour. It absorbs more moisture than all-purpose, so if you have a recipe where reducing liquids isn’t feasible, it’s a good option. (And adds fiber!) For UBB, I use 1 cup all-purpose flour and 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour. 
4. Add baking soda, 1/4 tsp. UBB already calls for it.
5. Reduce oven temperature by 25 degrees.

So here’s the updated recipe:

Whisk 1 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Peel 5 heavily speckled bananas (the riper the better). Microwave them until they’re softened and have released a good amount of liquid. (Alternatively, use 5 thawed frozen bananas, they will expel juice as they thaw.) Drain in a mesh strainer over a small saucepan for 15 mins. Put the bananas in a medium bowl and cook the juice over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/4 cup. Add to the bananas and mash it up. Stir in 8 Tbsp butter, melted, and 1/2 cup honey. Make sure the mixture is not more than slightly warm, and then briskly stir in 2 eggs. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Pour into flour mixture and stir until just combined. Scrape batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 325 for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the loaf. Cool in pan 15 mins, then remove from pan and cool until just warm to the touch. Take a number, it will disappear! This gently sweet bread is good for breakfast.