I am not a baker. I’ve historically made delicious cupcakes, always with the help of my good friend, Betty Crocker. As my daughter got older she wanted to help in the kitchen and this included showing an interest in baking. At first, I just bought mixes and we would add water, maybe an egg and/or apple sauce. But I realized I was going to need to move beyond mixes, when one day my daughter was helping with dinner and commented that I likely just needed to add water to make it be delicious.
My newness to baking, and a fear of undercooking food recently lead to a slightly dry banana bread. If you know me well, you’d know that I don’t always know when to fold ’em, walk away or run. Although it was far from amazing, I knew in my heart that I would likely end up eating the majority of the banana bread out of some stubborn loyalty to the effort my daughter and I put into baking. So there I was, me and the less than amazing in yum factor but high on effort and love banana bread.
It was then I realized, that I could double down. So I did what any home cook, who sometimes pretends to be on Chopped, would do. Using some other ingredients including a soon to be stale bread. I decided to make a French Toast Banana Bread Casserole. In the end, the results were AMAZING! That’s right, my sad banana bread went from should be trash to a treasure. As a bonus, my daughter helped to make the casserole and loved being such a great helper. She also loved eating it.
Truth is it was so good, we ended up devouring it before snapping a pic. So in the end, with a bit of creativity I was able to take the bad cards I’d dealt myself, and turn them into aces.
(The photo that I do have was taken prior to being cooked and also prior to me adding brown sugar, maple syrup, butter toping which is really the key to this dish – what wouldn’t go well with that on top).
