Blackberry Banana Bread

I came late to berry season. Upon waking up every morning, I thought, “BREAKFAST” closely followed by, “BLACKBERRIES”. After several weeks (I exaggerate not), a 21st birthday (and subsequently a renewed, heinous license that I will be subjecting bouncers to for the next five years), four dank bananas (which are rarely dank enough to not bake with) and a kitten (Duchess Lady Luna-Bear Elaine Athena Indica Rooney Artemis Cheese the III, aka Luna) later, I finally ventured out into the wild grass-wood-land that is our backyard…and frontyard…to collect a heaping bowl of blackberries. Meanwhile, my dear companion, Michael, barely scraped together a cup’s-worth.

It was totally the other way around. Whatever! Caterpillars!

Photo cred: radical drummer, Michael Hannon

After getting a wee kitty, I’ve found myself wondering how the hell people reproduce. Well, not how, per se. In fact I’m pretty clear on the whole reproducing bit. It’s the post-coitus series of events that I’m losing clarity on.

Maggie is a maniac at 7 am/when she’s hungry/when she’s frisky/when she sees her reflection, not to mention my kitten, Luna. How do parents do it?!

A “cat lady” future is not so unappealing. Maggie, my aforementioned 17-year-old sister, has three cats. Willy, Nelson, who is now approaching obesity, and Kitten (the latter is considered schizophrenic by the household; she wasn’t ever really named…sometimes Maggie calls her Voldemort). They have a nice life together, funded mostly by our mom.

“…three cats feels like 40 when it’s feedin’ time,” -Maggie Camp.

Anyway, Michael and I picked some blackberries yesterday. I researched several recipes for banana bread candidates (I think you can guess what I mean by research). I feel like you just gotta do that with such staple recipes as banana bread, kind of like chocolate chip cookies. Although, after a while, they all start to look identical.

With some of my dad’s forgotten bananas and a handful of my forgotten blackberries, this bread has proved to be delicious beyond forgetting.

I incorporated honey into the mix, instead of using all granulated sugar. It’s more photogenic. Chuckle.

*Not for cats.*

*Still not for cats.*

*Apparently, for cats. JUST A BITE.*

Blackberry Banana Bread

makes 1 9 x 5 inch loaf

total time involved: about 1 hour, 20 minutes

recipe adapted from Shelly Albeluhn on allrecipes

Ingredients

• 2 cups white whole-wheat flour, or all-purpose, or 1 1/2 cups white w.w. to 1/2 cup w.w. as I did
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon (spice according to your life, yo)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup butter room temperature, or 1/4 cup butter with 1/4 cup applesauce (I used the former)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup organic (my preference) granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/3 cups (about 6, I used 4 wishing I had at least another) overripe bananas (I’m talkin’ dark as the night)
• 1 cup of  fresh blackberries

Directions

1. Foremost, get those eggs and butter out so as to bring them to room temp. This recipe is totally veganizable, if you will; flax eggs and applesauce, yeah!
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and lightly grease yer loaf pan. You could also make muffins! YUMS! I’m not sure how many this recipe makes in terms of those guys, though, so I would plan on at least two muffin pans.
3. Defrost bananas if previously frozen (I popped ‘em in the microwave for about a minute) and mash away.
4. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
5. Cream together butter and sugar (and/or honey) in a separate, medium-sized bowl.
6. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas with the sugar/butter mixture, then add vanilla and cinnamon.
7. Scoop liquids of the medium bowl into the dry ingredients along with the blackberries, stirring with a wooden spoon just to combine. Over-mixing leads to dense, dry bread in most circumstances because of over-worked gluten. Careful, yos!
8. Pour batter into loaf evenly. I sprinkled cinnamon and raw sugar over the top (and the blackberries, because I definitely forgot them until this point. Heh.).
9. Bake for 60-65 minutes; mine took closer to 70.
10. Let cool for a few minutes on a wire rack after initially taking the bread out.
11. Enjoy with or without a kitten trying to help you eat it!

Last-minute blackberry additions.

-Bette Jane

P.S. I’ve been wondering if the randomly inserted link-references are annoying; I mostly find them amusing, a hidden surprise like a gnome.

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