A Bit of Baking and Spine-ku, Too/Two

My spine-ku for today:

The Madwoman in the Attic/ Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell/Partners in Crime

I am loving the new slow cooker I got a couple of months ago! It gets hotter and heats more evenly than my old one did, so it's far more efficient. It's also bigger, which is nice. It works really well for baking bread, among other things. Today I made a loaf of wholemeal banana walnut bread and it is yummy! It's a yeast bread, not the sweeter cake-like banana quick bread. 

I didn't use a specific recipe--I just make variations on the basic wholemeal loaf I've been making for years. Until it conked out, I was making bread in the bread maker I picked up for 5 euro in a charity shop. I had that for almost 4 years and used it once or twice a week before it got tired and stopped working. I decided not to replace it, but to start making the dough by hand and baking in the slow cooker. It took a long time to bake in the old slow cooker, but not in this one, so it's actually faster than the bread machine. Anyway, here's the 'recipe' such as it is. As always, I tweak the amount of flour depending on the weather conditions, the flour itself, and other factors.

3 cups strong wholemeal flour

3/4-1 cup plain flour--reserve a little for flouring the kneading surface 

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 sachet quick yeast

Place the above ingredients in a mixing bowl. Put the salt and the yeast on opposite sides.

2 large ripe bananas mashed with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or almond extract, if you prefer)

200 ml milk, heated just until it's warm

Stir dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, and mix. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or so, adding more flour a little bit at a time if the dough is too sticky. Add a handful or two of chopped walnuts as you knead (or some flaked almonds, if you prefer). You could also knead in some raisins or other dried fruit, seeds, and/or chocolate chips. When it's smooth and not sticky, shape into an oval. Line the crock of a low cooker with parchment paper, leaving enough so that you will be able to lift the loaf out using the paper. Place the dough in the slow cooker, turn it on high, and leave it for a couple of hours. If you tap on it and it sounds hollow, it's done. I find that I have to turn the loaf over and let it cook for another 30-45 minutes to make sure the centre top is baked through. Cool on rack.

Of course, if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, you could make the dough in that and bake in the slow cooker.

This bread is delicious with butter, jam, peanut butter, or as French toast.

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