I've got to admit - food preparation and I haven't been friends up until a few months ago when I finally got my shit together and made a full meal (basmati rice w/ tikka masala) all by myself (except for pancakes, I've made those before). (A woman who can't cook? What an abomination! What use there is for one then? Surely a woman like that would die as a lone crazy cat lady! The youth nowadays! Ugh!)

The reason for me never learning to cook before was that I really hate the waiting process. So so much. Now instead of full-on hatred I kind of... tolerate it. Just a little more and I might even LIKE cooking!

Annnyway...
I had three bananas in the fridge with brown stains all around them and an idea of trying out (both tasting and baking-wise) banana bread for the first time.

As I already mentioned earlier I'm not a very talented cook, so all of my food-making attempts are heavily based on recipes found online (again, except for pancakes). Everything has to be done as written - the components, the way I process them, the measurements, the time spent, and so on. Only after I've made the same meal three times, I feel like I can cut some slack, add stuff to the recipe, etc.

For todays banana bread I used a local recipe site called Nami-Nami (it's great because I don't have to go searching for what the fuck a shit-ton cups or a dozen oz stand for. Here's the recipe, if you're curious.

Step no.1 - bust some eggs, sugar

[IMAGE: https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/kristves/ZmJpYivB-20200517_162312.jpg]

(Bowl no.1).
So the first step was to crack open two large eggs and mix them with 100 grams of sugar. I cracked one open, success. I tried to crack the other and the inner-skin or whatever you call it didn't break. I tried to poke and squeeze it but it wouldn't give up. I risked a whole lot of shell bits in the bread if I were to smash it more. Instead I decided to throw the egg away (what a waste) and grab a new one which I then successfully cracked open.

Step no.2 - white powder

[IMAGE: https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/kristves/yvmnCzog-20200517_162328.jpg]

(Bowl no.2).
Mix 150 grams of flour and two teaspoons of cooking powder. (TIL - one could replace cooking powder with a mix of cooking soda and citric acid, can't remember what the proportions were, though).

Step no.3 - SMASH THOSE BANANAS

[IMAGE: https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/kristves/33tfsPiR-20200517_162323.jpg]

(Bowl no.3).
Oh, did I write "smash"? I really meant mash. Anyway, mash 2 medium or 3 small bananas the recipe said. Add 1 dl of milk and mix.

Step no.4

Now I had three bowls of mixtures to turn into one. The main bowl was the one with eggs and sugar. The instructions said to add the banana-milk mixture and the flour-powder mixture one at a time (add a bit of one, mix, add a bit of the other, mix, add some the first, mix, the second, mix). And so I did.

Step no.5

Put cooking paper all over a pound cake pan, pour the dough in and place it in the oven (preheated to 175 C) for at least 50 minutes (poke it with a match, if nothing sticks, it's ready). Take it out of the oven, let rest for 10 minutes and free it from the pan.

[IMAGE: https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/kristves/DlrJcxAE-20200517_175930.jpg]

It looked a bit better straight from the oven but collapsed in the middle just a couple of minutes after taking it out. Still, it was soft, juicy and tasty! And gone in less than an hour!