Make Banana Bread with just two bananas (why? You ask? Those two bananas were very very ripe, and the others were not ripe at all. Waiting for the unripe ones to ripen was impractical--basically, I have time to bake now, and not later, and I forgot to put one in Danjo's car to ripen while he's at work. Also, the ripe bananas won't wait another day. Their clear intention was to rot without being baked into something edible--I think they are not humble bananas, preferring decay over improvement by fiery furnace because bananas are dumb...wait...O.o).
...Anyway...
The problem: Two eggs and 1-1/4 cups of flour and 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp of salt are not easily reduced by 1/3 outside of a chemistry lab.
Baking soda: The 1 tsp baking soda doesn't SOUND so bad, but no measuring spoons have thirds marked on them. Also, they are shaped like spoons, so visualizing 2/3 full is difficult.
Salt? See baking soda.
Eggs:Big dilemma here, determining the quantity of egg required when you need 2/3 of two large eggs and all you have is 2 extra large eggs. In case you're wondering, failing the calculation, I tossed the egg yolks and just used the whites. Now the banana bread will be heart healthy (except for the 2/3 cube of butter--at least that was easy to eyeball--there's lines on the butter wrapper that correspond to the measurements I need).
Then there's the flour:
5/4c x 2/3 = 10/12c = 5/6c
Wonderful.
Just search your measuring cups for the line that says 5/6.
In short, this required more uncertainty than makes me happy, but the estimated 2/3 scale banana bread is in the oven, in a loaf pan that may or may not be 2/3 the size of a standard loaf pan. At least "stab with a toothpick to check for doneness" should still be operative in this 2/3 parallel baking universe. Sigh...
Next time I'll remember to leave the under-ripe bananas in Danjo's car
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4 comments:
Wow. I only have two measuring cups, 1/3 and 1/4 and have been too lazy to get any more. I cook all kinds of things by eyeballing the amounts. Sometimes I even use regular spoons for teaspoons and tablespoons. We are alike in a lot of ways, but clearly this is one of the ways we're different.
Or....you do what our family does. Throw the over ripe bananas in the freezer (in the skin). Let the under-ripe ones get over ripe and join the others in the freezer. Then, when you are ready, thaw the bananas, snip the tops off and slide them right out of the skin. They look disgusting but make awesome banana bread!
I have a recipe for banana ice cream; to ripen two bananas, blend in blender with two tablespoons of sugar and let sit for 2 hours. I have shortened the sit time to 1/2 hour, and it turned out good, but they where ripe-ish. If they had been green, they would sit the 2 hours.
you could have just put the un-overripe banana in the microwave for a little while and then made the whole recipe. In any case . . . how did it taste?
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