There were three bananas in the pantry I had set aside to ripen. I had seen a recipe that had intrigued me that required several ripened bananas. They were at just the right stage to be used.
Collecting my cooking magazines, I went in search of the recipe I had wanted. I looked through magazine after magazine after magazine. Couldn’t find it. I went back through them again looking at the recipe listing for each magazine, to no avail. That recipe just didn’t want to be found. However, I noticed another requiring ripe bananas.
It was a recipe for cinnamon banana bread. A basic banana bread with a twist, two layers of cinnamon in the middle with a coating of cinnamon, sugar, and butter. For a second choice, it didn’t look half-bad.
After gathering the ingredients, I got started putting it altogether. The recipe had to be done in three phases. The first being the cinnamon-sugar layer, the batter itself, and the topping. For first time recipes, I always follow the recipe as written to get a feel for it. As I go along, I make a mental note of what is working and what needs to be reworked.
This recipe worked pretty well with one exception, and two mix reworks for the next time. It had me mix the layer and the topping by hand—one needed softened butter, the other cold butter. Mixing them by hand created globs rather than sand as the recipe leads one to believe will happen. The change will fix the exception and the reworks at the same time.
Those two mixtures, both made of brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, need to be done in a small food processor. In doing so, the mix will come together quicker and with less heat. I think that will fix the clumping and globbing, giving them the texture of sand the recipes says should be the product.
Regardless, the bread turned out well. Very moist, very tasty. When someone has had two pieces, then tells you they will probably have a third later, well, that’s a pretty good recommendation the bread was pretty good.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 