Baby don’t you cry gonna make a pie
Gonna make a pie with a heart in the middle
Baby don’t you cry
Gonna make a pie
Hold you forever in the middle of my heart.
Waitress is without a doubt, my favorite movie of all time. If you haven’t seen it, shame on you. If you own it, we should probably be friends.
Jenna, played by Keri Russell, is a lost soul who finds herself unfortunately married to the world’s worst husband. She creates pie recipes from raw emotion, and names them accordingly: “I don’t want Earl’s baby pie”, “I hate my husband pie”, “Fallin in love chocolate pie”, “Pregnant miserable self pitying loser pie”, “Jenna’s first kiss pie”, etc.
Confession: I hate pie.
Regardless, I am an emotional baker. I bake when I’m happy, I bake when I’m sad, and I bake when I am everything in between.
Baking is peaceful to me, occasionally even therapeutic. If I could write and bake daily, I am convinced that my mind would be in a constant positive mental state. Is it possible to bake your feelings into a loaf of bread? Because I think it is. Sometimes I seem to bake my feelings and emotions right into my creation. My stress, happiness, anger, and love all get stirred into the mixture, right beside the brown sugar and vanilla. Stirring, I fold all the feelings tightly into the batter until I can’t see them anymore. Breathe.
I love waiting for my creation to bake. Sometimes I try to be productive and clean up the mess I’ve made in the midst of the creating, while other times (like today), I just sit and wait. Real Simple magazine in my lap, steaming mocha in my hand, I breathe in the sweet aroma of apple bread mixed with the familiar scent of my favorite pumpkin spice candle. Exactly 55 minutes of complete and utter solitude, and it’s perfect.
If you’re in the mood for a baking/therapy session, I recommend the following banana bread recipe:
Ingredients
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup light brown sugar
* 3 tablespoons lowfat milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup mashed bananas (2 large ripe bananas)
* 2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
If using a silicone 9- x 5-inch loaf pan, lightly brush the inside with melted butter; place on a sturdy baking sheet. If using a metal or glass pan, lightly spray with cooking spray, and line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit. Spray again with cooking spray and set aside.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, milk, vanilla and bananas until blended and creamy, about 3 minutes. Sift together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, salt, soda and baking powder. With the mixer running, slowly add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, beating just until thoroughly combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl during the mixing.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Bake about 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan 5 minutes on a cooling rack before removing from the pan. For silicone pans, loosen the sides simply by pulling away the bread, then press from the bottom of the pan. For other pans, loosen sides by running a knife around the edge, then unmold. Remove the parchment paper and let cool completely before slicing.
Makes one 9- x 5-inch loaf
Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food.
–Craig Claiborne
