we’re back to feeling human again.
well, almost human.
i’m not quite 100%
but we’ll get there.

lately it’s been a fallback
on all things comfort
the comfort foods of my childhood
soups
dw’s old high school sweatshirt
tom selleck on netflix
and this bread.
it’s a little pedestrian,
banana bread,
and that’s what i needed,
something familiar
with ingredients already on hand.
the roasting is optional
but it perfumes the whole abode
beautifully,
and when sick,
i’m not in the habit of
denying myself such comfort.

Roasted Banana Bread
loosely adapted from terri wu

*note: i’ve been making this bread for a few years now, i cheat and use other recipes but i find myself falling back to this one. like all sweet breads this is flexible, you can add nuts or dried fruit, chocolate chips, whatever is available in your pantry. i like that. also, the liquid can be anything – water, coffee and admittedly, this past week i forgot to brew fresh and just added water to my already used up coffee grounds. obviously, the most flavorable loaf was the one with the super strong brewed coffee but you won’t die if you use weak coffee or just plain water.
**note: you don’t have to roast the bananas, especially if they’re super ripe. i just like the flavor it imparts, and it makes to mashing them up so nicely. this recipe doesn’t use eggs so i’m not worried about cooking the eggs in the batter before they even make it to the oven. should you decide to roast your bananas for your go-to banana bread recipe that uses eggs, be sure to cool them sufficiently before adding to the batter.

1/4 cup flaxseeds
1/4 cup + 2 TBL hot coffee (or hot water)
1/2 cup apple sauce (or neutral oil, like grapeseed or sunflower)
1 2/3 cups einkorn flour (or AP)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 large ripe bananas
2 TBL vegan mayonnaise (or vegan yogurt)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBL brown sugar
dash of cinnamon
1/2 cup cranberries, optional

preheat oven to 350F.

in a oven safe pan, or pie pan, lay the bananas down. sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over top. optional: slice the bananas length-wise first. the flavor difference is negligible. put in oven as it heats up. you’re aiming for anywhere from 15-30 minutes, however long it takes for the oven to warm up fully and/or do up the batter.

in grinder, grind up the flaxseed. add to hot coffee (or water). mix, and ignore, 15 minutes.

in a mixing bowl add the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and ground cinnamon.

in the flaxseed container add the sugar and apple sauce (or oil). mix it up. fold this mixture into the flour mixing bowl until few dry streaks remain.

remove pie pan of banana goodness from the oven. use your best judgement: there have been times when it got quite mushy & liquidy and it strained it, and other times the moisture level wasn’t alarming. it’s up to you. to the pie pan add the vegan mayo (or yogurt), along with the salt, and stir to mix through. fold the mixture into the mixing bowl. add in the cranberries if using, combine completely.

transfer batter to greased loaf pan.

bake for 1 hour.

allow to cool completely in pan, invert onto wire rack.

to serve, i like to slice 1 thick piece and toast it, until the edges are nice and crunchy and dark.

BAM!

update:
my blog friend dixya made some banana bread today too, though hers is more like a bananas foster! her recipe.