So the past couple of weeks if my husband was not working he has been trying to fix our oven. Three Saturdays ago right after I put the pork chops in the oven the element arced and broke. On Sunday morning – first thing, hubby was shopping for an element. There is a lot to the story between then and us having an appointment for a repair man to come in on Tuesday, including a segment when the oven was making a scary buzzing noise so we turned the power off to the whole thing (it is a set in stove and oven unit). So for almost a week we were without an oven AND a stove. But again, not the point – exactly – of this post. The point is that we have a lot of bananas that turned into “banana bread” bananas really fast so I needed to make banana bread. I thought about trying to use the toaster oven to make cookies or little breads, but that sounded too daunting. So I asked Google if I could make banana bread in a crock-pot . . . and, of course I can! But as per my usual I didn’t read the recipe, I skimmed it. I skimmed two actually and both talked about putting the loaf pan IN the crock-pot. I assumed they were talking about a metal loaf pan; I don’t have a metal loaf pan. I also assumed they were talking about a BIG crock-pot, if you could fit a loaf pan in it! I don’t have a big crock-pot. Mine is small and round. One of the recipes did say that with a small crock-pot you could just line the crock-pot with parchment paper so that was my plan.
I was thinking I could just use my banana bread recipe, line the crock-pot, and “bake” away. I vacillated between being very leery and very confident. So while I was mixing the ingredients I looked up some recipes again trying to determine the cooking time and while I was scrolling through the kabillion advertisements on all of the postings, I had noticed the recipes call for baking POWDER (in addition to baking SODA). I don’t put baking powder in my banana bread. I happened to be texting with a friend while I was mixing and I asked her if the recipe she uses calls for baking powder and she said no. So we decided it was probably needed when “baking” banana bread in a crock-pot. So I just added a 1/2 teaspoon.
While I was looking up my banana bread recipe I also remembered I had one that I LOVED and it was in my notes on my phone. So I don’t know why I have a different one posted on my blog. AND I haven’t even been following that one. It seemed too plain the last time I made it. I might actually end up writing ANOTHER post when I go to make this again because I might use my “note recipe” as opposed to what I did.
Anyway . . . the banana bread came out GREAT. Better than when I bake it in the oven. I left it in the pot too long, but that was because I was leery, but now I know better. I had taken the insert out of the heating portion of the appliance, but I left the bread IN the pot. I will take it out next time and it will be perfect . . . well, maybe not because I will probably use a different recipe, but who knows. Here is what I did this time:
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Crock-pot Banana Bread (First Attempt)
3 ripe bananas
Heavy sprinkle of cinnamon
Sprinkle of nutmeg
1 Tablespoon (white) sugar
1/2 cup butter (one cube – softened)
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Butter for greasing the parchment paper
Parchment paper
(It is going to cook on high for 3 hours)
Put the peeled bananas in a bowl. Use a fork to smash the bananas to baby food-like consistency – with a few chunks. Sprinkle a good amount of cinnamon on the bananas and a sprinkle of nutmeg (next time I will measure, sorry), add the white sugar. Mix it up.
Cream the butter and brown sugar together. Add the eggs. Mix it up. Then add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture a little at a time.
Line the crock-pot with parchment paper. (I used two pieces, one going one way and the other going the other way, like a plus sign.) Press the paper into the pot as much as you can. Remember you are going to have ROUND banana bread and the edges might have “wrinkles” in them from the paper. Cut off the excess paper that sticks out of the top so that your lid will fit on properly. Butter the paper where the bread mixture will be. Then pour/scoop the mixture into the crock-pot. Turn it on high and set your timer for 2 1/2 hours. Check on the bread if you want or just let it go for another 30 minutes.
Carefully take the lid off . . . . you might not want all the condensation to drip onto the top of your bread.
Then you simply pull the bread out by the paper. If you want let it cool before you slice into it.
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I had NOT planned on writing a recipe because I thought I was going to just use the one I have posted in my “Banana Bread” post, but I changed it enough that I thought I would post the recipe. I was just going to post pictures of the bread, that is why I don’t have pictures of ingredients . . . but you all know what they look like. You just needed someone to say . . . “Hey, I made banana bread in my (old) crock-pot.”
I specify “old” crock-pot because it is NOT one of those fancy ones where you know the temperature and can set a time. Mine has Off/Lo/High. I cooked it for three hours on high. I checked it at 2 and I thought, “Okay, I am gonna have to have faith this is going to cook.” Because it was nowhere near cooked after 2 hours.
It was so good, I don’t think I will use my oven to bake banana bread again!
So . . . do you think you will try making banana bread in your crock-pot?
