by Luke McKinney
FoodConnect Toronto
luke.mckinney@foodconnect.com

One of the greatest things about bread is there are so many ways to make it. No haute couture blowfish this, which must be made right and exactly right according to one treasured method or become worthless. Bread rewards experimentation, innovation and sometimes just throwing in what you feel like and seeing what happens.

One such experiment is banana and honey bread. Take your basic bread recipe, but instead of that boring "water" stuff throw in two cups worth of liquidized banana (four large bananas and a blender will give you more than enough). Mix in four tablespoons of honey to kick up the sweetness (and give the yeast something to really get their buzz on).

You'll notice some significant changes to your dough, which you should expect because if there fluids gooier than blended banana and honey I don't recommend trying to eat them. The kneading will be less "pleasantly massaging the dough" and more "beating an enraged Mike Tyson into submission", and you must resist all urges to say "That's long enough." Keep going until the dough feels good or you might as well not have bothered.

Note: Clean all your surfaces (including the blender blades) IMMEDIATELY. You might want to take a rest after beating the dough into submission, but the sweltering summer heat makes banana residue an all-points invitation to fruit flies.

Don't skip any of your usual preparation steps. Warm up your ingredients, and give the yeast plenty of time to mix into the liquid before adding to the flour - it's a more difficult bread to raise, and you might notice you have to leave it sit longer before punching it down or baking. Finally, drizzle some more honey over the top before baking for a lovely caramelizing effect.

But you know that's not the real final instruction. This is: Enjoy!