A cry for help!

I really love to bake.  I have been attempting one thing or another in the kitchen since I was probably 12 or 13.  That was the time in my life that I had 2 choices, either fix dinner or go out and feed the steers.  I chose fixing dinner.  My brothers got the joys of the outside chores, I got the inside ones.  The joys were not evident at the time.  Clearly when you lock yourself in the bathroom to avoid dish detail, its not what you would love to spend your Sunday evening doing.  Well, I grew up a little and stopped locking myself in the bathroom to get out of dishes, now its so I can get a 3 minute break from my rug-rats.

Today I had a bunch of bananas calling to be baked up into something delightful on this snowy January day.   I have a few Banana Bread recipes that have been in my collection for at least a decade.  I pulled one out and got to work.  This is what the lovely loaf looked like when it had baked merrily for about 55 minutes.



Gorgeous right? Wonderful color, great looking dome on the top, just lovely.  You will have to trust me when I say it smells heavenly.  Well, much to my disappointment 10 minutes later it transformed to this:

 

Why??? Why in blazes does this sometimes happen?  Is the pan too big? Do I mix too much, or not enough?  Am I cursed to have a gooey, goopy center of my bread forever?  I hope not.  Luckily my endeavors today were not all crappy.  There was some left over batter that I decided to make a few JUMBO muffins from.  Oh. My. They are fantastic.

 

 

 

 

Lovely, right?  I added a crumb topping just for funzies.  It was a very good idea.  Yummy, warm, deliciousness. Would you like to try them out?  Be my guest, here's the low down:

Banana Bread: from Val McCauley

3/4C Shortening

1 1/2C Sugar

3 Eggs

4 Medium Ripe Bananas-mashed

3C Flour

1 1/2t Baking Soda

1/2C Chopped Nuts (optional)

Mix in order given and bake in greased loaf pan. 325 for 50-60 minutes.

 

Crumb topping for Muffins: From Launette Shaw

1/4C Brown Sugar

1/4C Flour

2T Butter-softened.

Combine all in a small bowl with your fingers, until the texture is like sand. Sprinkle on top of muffins, be very generous. I had left-over batter from the bread recipe for 3 Jumbo muffins.