On the Trail of a Banana Bread Recipe
I've had a bunch of blog topics stuck in my queue- my backlog, or backblog if you will- for a few weeks now. I don't have a good reason why. Anyway, here's one from about 5 weeks ago: Baking banana bread!
I have fond childhood memories of banana bread. It was one of the few things my mom would make from scratch. And her recipe, which she said she got from her grandparents- German immigrants who opened a confectionary store in New York City- tasted amazing. It was too bad she only made it about once a year.
So, I got the recipe, let some bananas get over-ripe, and started mixing. ...Oh, wait, not so fast. First I had to get the recipe!
Lost!
I'd copied the recipe down by hand yeeeears ago when I was moving away to live on my own. I made banana bread for housemates in school, and everyone loved it. I made it after Hawk and I got together, too. The awesome thing was how easy it was to make and get great, bakery-shop-quality results. But the last time I made it was over 15 years ago now. While that dog-eared, hand-printed index card made it through a few house moves it got lost in the shuffle somewhere in recent years. I searched high and low for it- including in the desk I've owned for 27.5 years, which is where it should have been. Alas, I couldn't find it.
Family Connection
"No problem," I figured, "I'll check with my mom again." Except my mom is... uh.... Let's just say, I don't think she's cooked anything more complicated than microwaving a cup of coffee in 10 years. I called her to check anyway.
She wasn't answering the phone on the days I called. Sometimes she retreats for days at a time.
Family Connection #2
"No problem," I figured, "I'll text my youngest sister." Our mom lives with her. Sis couldn't find her copy of the recipe, either, but at least knew what I was talking about. Though she disagreed it came from our great-grandparents. She said the recipe card she'd seen had Aunt Diane's named stamped on it.
"Well, maybe Mom copied it off her sister because her mom couldn't find it either," I mused.
Instead she texted me a picture of a recipe she found online she uses.
"I have plenty of other recipes already!" I fumed silently. I didn't want some rando online recipe; I wanted our family recipe.
Hitting the Books
"Maybe it's isn't a family recipe," I considered. It's easy to check cookbooks because we have a shelf full of them. Plus, finding countless recipes online takes all of about 5 seconds of searching. I paged through several examples, both online and off, but none of them seemed like the right recipe. I remember that mom's family recipe had a particular ratio of two ingredients, baking powder and baking soda. None of the recipes I found had that ratio. Most didn't call for soda at all.
Family Connection #3
I wasn't out of options yet. I do have two other sisters. Benefit of a big family, amiright? 😂 I texted my oldest sister.
"Oh, you mean Aunt Diane's recipe?" she responded when I asked about mom's recipe from her mom, from her mom's parents. "Well, I don't have it. But you could call Diane. I have her number here...."
I am not calling Diane, I thought to myself. I don't have time or care to listen to her cry about how her life's been shit since her husband left her. ...Understand, BTW, I'm not unsympathetic about her first husband leaving her. The thing is, it happened in 1981. She's been throwing a pity party nonstop for the past 40 years.
My oldest sister came through a few days later. "Found it!" she texted, attaching a picture of a professionally typeset recipe- the kind you'd find a published cookbook- with Diane's name hand-written on it. So maybe it wasn't my great-grandparents' recipe (unless they paid for professional printing? It's possible; they literally ran a fulltime business based on their baking!) but it definitely wasn't Diane's. It was, however, the recipe I remembered. All the ingredients were there, including the proper ratio of powder to soda I remember. It's the one I chose to use.
Next step: Time to bake!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/29349.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
I have fond childhood memories of banana bread. It was one of the few things my mom would make from scratch. And her recipe, which she said she got from her grandparents- German immigrants who opened a confectionary store in New York City- tasted amazing. It was too bad she only made it about once a year.
So, I got the recipe, let some bananas get over-ripe, and started mixing. ...Oh, wait, not so fast. First I had to get the recipe!
Lost!
I'd copied the recipe down by hand yeeeears ago when I was moving away to live on my own. I made banana bread for housemates in school, and everyone loved it. I made it after Hawk and I got together, too. The awesome thing was how easy it was to make and get great, bakery-shop-quality results. But the last time I made it was over 15 years ago now. While that dog-eared, hand-printed index card made it through a few house moves it got lost in the shuffle somewhere in recent years. I searched high and low for it- including in the desk I've owned for 27.5 years, which is where it should have been. Alas, I couldn't find it.
Family Connection
"No problem," I figured, "I'll check with my mom again." Except my mom is... uh.... Let's just say, I don't think she's cooked anything more complicated than microwaving a cup of coffee in 10 years. I called her to check anyway.
She wasn't answering the phone on the days I called. Sometimes she retreats for days at a time.
Family Connection #2
"No problem," I figured, "I'll text my youngest sister." Our mom lives with her. Sis couldn't find her copy of the recipe, either, but at least knew what I was talking about. Though she disagreed it came from our great-grandparents. She said the recipe card she'd seen had Aunt Diane's named stamped on it.
"Well, maybe Mom copied it off her sister because her mom couldn't find it either," I mused.
Instead she texted me a picture of a recipe she found online she uses.
"I have plenty of other recipes already!" I fumed silently. I didn't want some rando online recipe; I wanted our family recipe.
Hitting the Books
"Maybe it's isn't a family recipe," I considered. It's easy to check cookbooks because we have a shelf full of them. Plus, finding countless recipes online takes all of about 5 seconds of searching. I paged through several examples, both online and off, but none of them seemed like the right recipe. I remember that mom's family recipe had a particular ratio of two ingredients, baking powder and baking soda. None of the recipes I found had that ratio. Most didn't call for soda at all.
Family Connection #3
I wasn't out of options yet. I do have two other sisters. Benefit of a big family, amiright? 😂 I texted my oldest sister.
"Oh, you mean Aunt Diane's recipe?" she responded when I asked about mom's recipe from her mom, from her mom's parents. "Well, I don't have it. But you could call Diane. I have her number here...."
I am not calling Diane, I thought to myself. I don't have time or care to listen to her cry about how her life's been shit since her husband left her. ...Understand, BTW, I'm not unsympathetic about her first husband leaving her. The thing is, it happened in 1981. She's been throwing a pity party nonstop for the past 40 years.
My oldest sister came through a few days later. "Found it!" she texted, attaching a picture of a professionally typeset recipe- the kind you'd find a published cookbook- with Diane's name hand-written on it. So maybe it wasn't my great-grandparents' recipe (unless they paid for professional printing? It's possible; they literally ran a fulltime business based on their baking!) but it definitely wasn't Diane's. It was, however, the recipe I remembered. All the ingredients were there, including the proper ratio of powder to soda I remember. It's the one I chose to use.
Next step: Time to bake!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/29349.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]