Originally posted posted on November 12, 2005.

This is the recipe I use for banana bread. I’ve always loved banana bread, especially with walnuts. But the walnuts are optional if you have a nut allergy. As usual I used organic ingredients (bananas, eggs, vanilla, walnuts) where possible, but you can use non-organic stuff and make it cheaper.

I usually try to avoid using specialized gadgets for the web recipes, but using a hand mixer makes some of this a bit easier than mixing by hand.

Basic Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 300° (use an oven thermometer!)
2. Mash ripe bananas in a large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in beaten eggs with a hand mixer until blended.
4. Add sugar in gradually while beating with hand mixer.
5. Add in shortening (in small chunks) and vanilla, and beat some more with hand mixer.
6. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt, then blend into batter.
7. Chop walnuts up some and mix into batter by hand.
8. Bake 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours at 300°.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are some very ripe bananas, all-purpose flour, baking soda, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, shortening and walnuts.

Note: I bought some organic bananas fresh (the 3 were about ¾ pound) and let them sit on a shelf in my kitchen for about 7 days to let them get as “ripe” as you see here..

To start peel the bananas, break them into smaller chunks, and mash them up in a mixing bowl with a potato masher.

Beat the 2 eggs and add them to the mashed bananas, then beat some with your hand mixer.

Add the 1 ¼ cups of sugar to the mix, and beat some more with the hand mixer.

Then add in the ½ cup of shortening and 1 ½ tsp of vanilla extract, and beat some more with the hand mixer. (Your arm would be pretty tired by now mixing by hand, heh..)

In another bowl whisk together the 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda and ½ tsp of salt.

Add the flour, baking soda and salt combination to the banana puree mixture and blend together with the hand mixer again. (You’re getting your money’s worth from the hand mixer, eh?)

Chop the walnuts with a knife and add them to the batter.. Mix them in a bit by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Pour the whole mess into your favorite greased 9″ x 5″ bread pan.

Place into a 300° pre-heated oven and bake for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours (mine went closer to 1 ½ hours). You’ll know it’s done when a toothpick or sharp knife comes out clean when you poke it.

Note: If you don’t already have one, pick up an oven thermometer. My gas oven is a little old and can be anywhere from 25 to 50 degrees hotter than what the dial reads..

Let the loaf cool on a cooling rack for an hour or so, covered with a dish towel, before cutting into it. Then it’s ready to eat! mMmm.

Originally posted on October 1, 2005.

I’ve always loved the big soft pretzels they sell at ball parks and carnivals. I decided to try making some myself, and it’s not too hard. I made a dozen small ones here, but next time I do it I think I’ll make 6 bigger ones. There’s pictures of each step, enjoy!

Basic Instructions:

1. Dissolve dry active yeast in warm (100° – 110°) water and set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.
2. Add 2 tbsp of oil and ½ tsp of salt and mix together.
3. Add first 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour and mix in.
4. Add remaining 1 ¼ cups of all purpose flour and begin kneading dough.
5. Knead by hand for about 15 minutes.
6. Place dough ball into lightly oiled bowl, cover, and set aside to rise for 60 – 75 minutes.
7. Divide dough into 12 even pieces, roll into balls, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.
8. Roll out each piece until 18 inches long, then shape into pretzel shapes.
9. Cover pretzels and let rise for another 30 minutes.
10. Add 2 tbsp baking soda to a pot of water and boil each pretzel for 1 minute.
11. Place pretzels on greased sheet pan and add coarse salt as desired.
12. Bake soft pretzels at 475° oven for 12 minutes.

Now onto photos of the process!

Here are the basic ingredients we’ll need. Some all purpose flour, a packet of dry active yeast, some salt and some oil (you can use vegetable oil, but I use olive oil for most stuff). Other ingredients we’ll use later (not pictured here) are some baking soda for the boiling water and coarse salt for the pretzels.

Update: After having made bread for a few years now I would definitely go with bread flour in the future. Bread flour has more gluten protein in it, the stuff that gives pizza it’s chewiness.

Add 1 cup of warm water (100° – 110°) to a mixing bowl, then sprinkle on the yeast. Cover the bowl with a towel and set aside to let the yeast “bloom”. After 10 minutes or so the yeast should be foamy, this is good.

Note: The first packet of yeast I used didn’t bloom. The expiration date was fine, but it must have been dead stuff, the water temp was perfect.. Yeast die at 130° and higher, so be careful of the water temp.

I then added in the 2 tbsp of oil and ½ tsp of salt, stirred it together, then added in the first 1 ½ cups of flour. Hold off on the rest of the flour at this point..

Now mix the whole mess together.

Then add in the remaining 1 ¼ cups of flour, and mix it in too.

Dump the sticky dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for a good 15 minutes.

Note: Don’t skimp on the kneading, most dough (with the exception of biscuits) need a good amount of kneading to get the gluten proteins going. The proteins are what will keep it from breaking later when we roll it out, just like how they keep a pizza from tearing when you toss it.

After kneading I lightly oiled a bowl and the dough ball, covered it with a towel, and set it in the unlit oven to rise for 60 – 75 minutes. It’s ready when the dough is twice as big.

Cut the dough into 12 even chunks.. Or if you decide to make big pretzels divide into 6 chunks.

Form all 12 chunks of dough into round balls. Cover them and let them rest for around 15 minutes.

Then we start rolling out the dough into long cylinders..

When they’re fully rolled out they should each be about 18 inches, but it doesn’t have to be exact.

Form them each into the shape of a pretzel, or whatever shape you dig

Then cover your pretzels with a towel and let rise for another 30 minutes. Yeah, I know, we’re doing a lot of dough rising here.. But it needs it!

To get the outside texture you’re used to with a big soft pretzel we start a pot of water boiling, with 2 tbsp of baking soda stirred in.

Boil each pretzel for just 1 minute. Don’t worry about them falling apart, since letting the formed pretzels rise again should have them pretty well stuck together in their shape now.

I let the pretzels boil on one side for 30 seconds, then flipped them over to boil on the other side for another 30 seconds.. I also used a slotted spatula to add them to, and get the out of, the water.

Then I removed the pretzels from the boiling water and set them on a dish towel I had nearby to drain off the excess water before setting them on the greased sheet pan.

Add some coarse salt to the pretzels, not the normal table salt you use on popcorn..

Note: Make sure you grease the sheet pan pretty good. If it’s not lubed up enough you’ll be prying your pretzels up with a chisel later

After baking in the oven at 475° for 12 minutes I pulled them out and put them on a cooking rack and covered with a towel for 10 minutes or so. They turned out good, but I now wish I would have made the bigger version, and browned them a little more.