BANANA BREAD RECIPE & BOOK HAUL

8/2/2013

So my mom has been making this banana bread recipe since I was very little and it’s always fun to try different versions of it with different little surprises added inside. You can pretty much add anything you want to the batter, but today I decided to try out some butterscotch morsels with walnuts. I also had dried cranberries on hand, but wasn’t sure if that would be overkill. Maybe next time!

So my mother brought to my attention that the bananas were starting to go bad, which is the BEST time to make banana bread!! She wanted to make it, but she was busy with some other things, so she asked me to. So I whipped out her handy dandy recipe!

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Once I got all of my ingredients together I preheated my oven to 350 Degrees and then I added the dry ones first to a large mixing bowl.

Next add 1/2 cup of shortening, or you can use butter or margarine. I actually used Earth Balance Vegan Butter and it worked just as well! I also used the same thing to grease my pan.
Here in this step you want to cut the butter or shortening into your dry ingredients with 2 knives, scissor style, OR you can do what I did and mash it all together with your hands… (Make sure you take off your rings and your hands are clean !)

Mash it together until you get these coarse crumbs!

Next mash up your 2 overly riped nanners, and lightly beat 2 eggs!

Add that to your crumbly dry mixture along with a half a cup of your butterscotch morsels and a half a cup of your crushed walnuts!

Fold all of that into your batter with a spatula!

Now grease your bread pan, and pour your batter into it. Pop that baby in the oven and set your timer to 55 minutes to 1 hour!

Before our next recipe, let’s take a much needed and well deserved break! Time to LICK THE BOWL!!! :-X (That part always makes me still feel like a kid again!) While that is in the oven it is time to get started on our magickal refreshing Chai Tea Elixir! This is great to drink on the side with your banana bread!

CHAI TEA ELIXIR

First bring a pot of water to a boil…

Once that is boiled, turn off the heat and get out 2 teabgs. I love this Organic Tazo Chai, but you can use any brand of Chai that you wish.

Put the 2 tea bags in your pot of HOT water and let that steep. You might want to wrap the tea bag’s string around the pot handle to prevent the whole thing from falling into the water. Be careful not to burn yourself doing this!
Also, while your teabags are steeping and your water is still HOT, now add your sugar and stir so it dissolves. You can add sugar to taste: less if you don’t like it as sweet, or more if you love a sweet chai like myself

While your tea is steeping, check on your banana bread! Stick a toothpick or fork in the center, and if you have raw batter come out onto the fork, then let it bake a bit more. Mine was actually still a bit uncooked in the center after a full hour. I think I added an extra 10 minutes, and again it was still uncooked. Finally after adding another 15, it was baked all the way through.

Time to take out our BANANA BREAD! Let that cool on your stovetop now, and go check on your chai tea…

Once your tea is lukewarm on the stove, now it is time to pour it into a pitcher, add a handful of ice,and also some milk to taste. Add more if you like your tea lighter, less if you love a dark tea. I love my chai creamy, so I added a lot of milk! Put that in the fridge to chill it for a bit until you are ready to serve! While your bread is cooling, and your tea is chilling, there are a few things I want to show you…

I bought some new books!! I had a some money on a gift card that I had been saving for a special occasion. Well I had just finished reading Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, and I was really craving more of her magical stories, so I had set out to find some more of her work.

I picked up The Girl Who Chased the Moon, and The Sugar Queen. Aren’t these beautiful? I can’t wait to devour their magical pages!

Aside from the Sarah Addison Allen Books, I also stumbled upon a beautiful bright pink leather bound book called Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Other Stories. I thought the cover was so enchanting with its filigreed whimsical cover with golden accents.

The inside covers are beautifully illustrated with gold dipped pages. The book also includes a silk book mark sewn into the binding and the pages themselves include the original illustrations by Sir John Tenniel

The back cover has the Mad Hatter on it, which I loved as well!! I cannot wait to read these amazing works!

I thought the book was so beautiful that I just had to add it to my collection! I really wanted to share it with you all O would you look at that! Our bread is cooled and our chai tea latte is chilled!