The Baker Brandon

This is a simple recipe I’ve drafted that has been a part of my staples for years. I make a loaf nearly weekly and am considering increasing that rate. It has been the center of much appraise over the years and as can be read below, a great bridge across cultures. Please add any questions or comments, thank you!

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, ripe enough
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup whole milk
• ½ cup nuts or chocolate chips (if you want)

Experience

1. Be in The Netherlands, having been invited to your friend’s home for New Year’s celebrations.
2. Become overwhelmed by his and his family’s welcome. They carry your bags to the car and deliver you and some good friends to a style of home you’d only seen drawn on the pages of bedtime stories.
3. Spend a night in your friend’s room. When he offers you his bed, take the cot. You’ll gossip about the friend who took his bed.
4. Talk to his mother, she’s kind and informative. She heard you like to bake and would like to try something of yours before you leave for Amsterdam if you’d be so kind. Remember the night before, wolfing down their rich cheeses and gulping their wine. Be so kind.
5. Ride through pleasant Dutch neighborhoods with winter in the air, windmills in the horizon. Go to the market for fresh ingredients, Jumbo® for everything else.
6. Your bananas have not ripened enough; freeze them for hours. Take them out, browned and ready.
7. Prepare your batter with your friends around you, while Auld Lang Syne is played live for you on piano by your friend’s father. Discover a newfound appreciation for the song. Sprinkle batter with coconut, for whimsy.
8. Place your bread in the oven.
9. Be invited to midnight mass the day before the new year, as they do every year. Turn off the oven after 50 minutes and hope for the best. Some experiences are worth a little burn.
10. Visit the church, so large its shadow looms across pale homes blocks away. Walk through oceans of candles and bowed heads in silence. Sit in a pew next to your friend’s father. Listen to his prayer.
11. Close your eyes and think about your family across the ocean, how much your mom would like to see you in a church.
12. Gaze at the stars from a new angle on your way home.
13. Take pan out of the oven.

Steps

1. Prepare loaf pan by spreading inside with butter and a dusting of flour.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F.
3. Sift and whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
4. Mash bananas in a small bowl, until lumpy mush.
5. In a large bowl, combine butter, sugars, and vanilla very well. Add eggs one at a time and combine.
6. Alternate between adding flour mixture and milk until fully combined.
7. Add bananas and mix very well. Add fixings if you want.
8. Pour batter into loaf pan gently and bake for a little over an hour, until solid in the middle (use toothpick to test).
9. After 15 minutes, remove from pan and let cool for 45 minutes.