First Bake

Since August, my life has largely been lived inside my head. I thought about starting my blog on 10/10/10, since it seemed like an auspicious day, but that day came and went.

But today, I baked a banana "cake", and started taking photos of it...and what good are photos if they cannot be shared?  So, the blog is back!

I had been planning on baking bread for several days now. I have a weakness for baked goods for breakfast, and with the weather getting cooler, skipping breakfast, or just having some yogurt for breakfast, wasn't working for me anymore. Two days ago, my heat went out, and though it's been a mild winter so far--daytime temps in the low 60's high 50's and sunny, temps in the high 30's at night--the apartment was still feeling a little cold. I started thinking about baking something, to get the apartment warmed up. Luckily, the heat was fixed the next afternoon, but the idea that I needed to bake something was still going.

So, I decided to make banana bread. I wanted it healthy and hearty, so I put ground walnuts in it, and I bought ground flaxseed, too. I used this recipe: http://southernfood.about.com/od/bananabread/r/bl30426m.htm
I made some changes, using only 1.5 cups of sugar, instead of 2 cups, and using 3.5 cups of flour and 0.5 cups of ground flaxseed instead of 4 cups of flour.

The recipe called for 2 loaf pans, but I used a 9-inch springform pan. I put a layer of non-stick aluminum foil on the pan bottom and then I attached the springform band on top. I tore off the overhanging foil. The hard part was figuring out how long to bake it. I baked it for 1 hour 15 mins at 325 degrees, as directed. An uncooked spaghetti noodle stuck down into it came out sticky--so I reduced the temperature to 300 degrees, and every 15 minutes or so, I stuck a knife or a spaghetti noodle into the middle to test for doneness. I also laid a piece of foil on top of the cake to prevent the top from burning. It took about 45 minutes more, but the knife finally came out clean.