Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Strawberry Banana Bread......or Not

'Cause sometimes? Ya have to share your failures as well as your successes. ;)

If necessity is the mother of invention, then surely the produce in your kitchen just this side of spoiling is her darling daughter.


Lucky, too...'cause she inspired this, Strawberry Banana Bread. (at this point, i was still banking on this idea working out beautifully!) I knew I'd be making some banana bread of some bananas when I noticed out 'nana hanger was about to drop their 3 brown butts to the counter. When I remembered the container of organic strawberries that were hiding in the crisper I thought, 'Hmmmmm, strawberry banana is such a yummy combo, why've I never tried this before?'.

Looks like mamma had a hand in this lil kitchen experiment as well...or maybe that was her sneaky son, Lack of Forethought? I knew when I put the batter into my loaf pan that it was a bit full. I don't remember that being a problem in the past, didn't expect this to rise much...but indeed it did, oozing strawberry banana goodness all over the oven and leaving the loaf not so pretty. Actually, all said and done, I had all kindsa problems with this creation. I blame Lack of Forethought's sidekick, Love For Junkfood who whispered in my ear to go for it, use all the sugar, most of the vegan margarine and hell, sub some vanilla soy creamer for regular soy milk.

The loaf, after an hour and ten, was not ready. So ten more minutes...then another, then five more, and the corners were threatening to go black. Out it came to cool and I'll be darned if that thing wasn't just too heavy to ever really cook thru and set up. Actually, taking it out of the loaf pan, the whole thing collapsed on itself. The flavor's good, but it's like a bit overdone banana bread outside with a banana strawberry bread pudding inside.Interesting, not awful, not really worthy of serving to anyone honestly, and certainly not what I was going for. So no recipes today, but I'm not giving up yet! I see a healthier version in the form of Yummy Banana Muffins with Strawberry Swirl in the very near future. ;)

And another kitchen dud was Bryanna's puffy omelet. I stumbled upon it by accident in cruising the web for other people's versions of tofu omelets. Knowing Bryanna almost always hits it out of the park, I raced to the kitchen to whip this one up. It's easy, sounds versatile, and cooks up quickly...just what i was looking for.

When I first whipped it up I was a little put off by the flour in the recipe. I didn't love the floury taste or smell I was getting from it but figured that would all cook off?

Then, in my 500 degree oven on my dark baking pans (cake pans really, as all my baking sheets are not dark as the recipe suggests need be used) I took them out to flip only to find that they were horribly stuck to the pans. I liberally had oiled them so this was not a foreseen problem.

But flip them I did and cooked them up anyway, having to scrape them a second time off the pans to serve. I'd added chopped green onion to mine and salvaged their crumbly mess by serving them up to myself with a side of roasted potatoes and fresh avocado then topping with my homemade salsa. Because really? that stuff makes EVERYTHING taste good. ;)I'd still jump to try Bryanna's other recipes but this one just didn't work for me. I think I prefer my tofu omelets sans flour and requiring just longer cooking time. Live, (eat!), and learn!

9 comments:

Vegan_Noodle said...

Bummer about the bread and omelet!! Strawberry banana bread definitely sounds like a good idea. Oh well, we all go through these kinds of experiences. Good learning for us all. And good luck with the next round of muffins!

Anonymous said...

Well we've all been there... I know I have... cook it for an hour... no, 10 minutes more... no, maybe another 10 minutes, etc. etc.

The bread does sound good though. I bet you'll dial it in next time :-)

Unknown said...

kudos for sharing your "failures" with us, although I still think it looks super tasty.

bazu said...

you can't be a true kitchen innovator without some stumbles here and there... that being said, is it wrong that I still find the idea of strawberry banana bread really intriguing??

Anonymous said...

all of us have "failures" in the kitchens, but mines does not looks as good as your :)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

no worries! I've certainly had my fair share of "kitchen messes" to go along with the successes - while frustrating in the moment, it serves as a great learning experience for future culinary adventures :0)

Judy said...

That is too bad about the banana bread - I have had so many of those experiences! And you are right, strawberry and banana is the best flavour combo.

aimee said...

So, oddly enough, I had a similar recent disaster with trying to create a stawbanana bread. (I just added ripe berries to my standard banana bread recipe)! I found that toasting the "slices" and serving with a little EB makes them quite tasty! It helps dry out the mushy part!
Aimee

Anonymous said...

Banana strawberry bread is a good idea. Perhaps you should cover the bread with foil for about an hour and 10 mins of the baking time, and then uncover and let it bake for at least another 20 mins...I bet it will turn out great! :)