B is for Banana Bread and Butter By: Siobhan

This is kind of a combination recipe/school post.  Tert was learning about the letter B so we decided to make butter. Of course, we had to have banana bread to go with it.

For the butter:

Put some heavy cream in the jar (we filled it halfway) and shake.

 ...and shake...

 And shake...

The cream will get really stiff so it won't slosh. After a while the cream will separate again. When you hear a sloshing noise look in and you'll see this:

 

Dump the mixture into a strainer and strain out the buttermilk.

  

Keep the milk: it's good for cooking.

Connor decorated this label from Phonics Museum

 For the Banana Bread:

1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1 t allspice
About 5-6 small bananas or 3 large ones
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Raisins, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

 Step 1: Mix together oil, honey and molasses. Beat in 1 egg.

 

  Step 2: In another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, salt and allspice.

Step 3: Peel and Mash the Bananas

Step 4: In a third bowl mix the bananas and yogurt.

Step 5: Add dry mixture and banana mixture alternately to oil mixture until just combined well. Add raisins, nuts, chocolate chips, etc. to bread

Step 6: Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-60 minutes.

You can also make a gluten free variation of this recipe.  The only difference when it comes to baking it is putting in a little extra flour and having a different color batter. I made muffins so I put in about 1/2 cup more flour than I would have if I was making bread.

I got about 15 muffins with this gluten-free version of the recipe:

1/4 cup oil
1/8 cup honey
1/8 cup molasses
1/2 egg (beat it and dump half of it into the bowl)
about 1 1/4 cups gluten free flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 t allspice
About 3-4 small bananas or 2 large ones
1/8 cup plain yogurt
Raisins, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Here is  the bread! I got about a 9x13 pan of whole wheat flour muffins doubling the first version of the recipe and 15 muffins using the gluten free version.

 These were incredibly good topped with fresh, homemade butter.