Perfcet in a Pinch

I decided it was time to make Banana bread. My sister is the reigning queen of banana bread and had pretty much ruined all other banana breads for me. Her's is the moistest most delicious banana bread I've ever had. Of course it's full of gluten AND dairy so neither of us can eat it now. I was determined to modify it.

I was reminded of banana bread every time I would eat the Pineapple cake I listed first on this blog. While obviously not the same, something about it was similar enough that I felt confident that this would work as a base. The trickier modification would be buttermilk. I had read online that you could approximate buttermilk by mixing lemon juice in a milk substitute. But I had decided to try it with Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream instead. I knew you could use real sour cream in cakes and things, though I've never done it, so the Tofutti seemed like a good starting point. But the grocery store was out. And I'm not a patient person so rather than wait until another day I changed course.

In the same cold case where the Better Than Sour Cream should have been were the soy yogurts. Some people use plain yogurt instead of sour cream on potatoes and things so it seamed like a reasonable substitute. But they didn't have any plain soy yogurt either. I was wary of using flavored soy yogurt. I went back and forth on it and in the end decided it was worth $1.19 to try even if it failed. Between vanilla and lemon I chose lemon because lemon was something listed way up above as being part of a buttermilk substitute. I know, very scientific reasoning.

By referencing my sister I learned that it takes 2 bananas per loaf of bread. When mashed up that measured right at 1/2 cup. By adding the entire 6 oz. of yogurt it brought it up to my desired 'about 10 oz.' of wet ingredients. It tasted too lemony at this point and I was pretty sure it wasn't going to turn out the way I wanted it to.

I was going to my parents for dinner so I baked it there. It came out so beautiful I was giddy. I carried it around to everyone right out of the oven so they could smell it. It smelled absolutely perfect. We didn't let it cool. We cut right into it. It was amazingly moist and tasted almost identical to the forbidden banana bread we knew and loved. My ever skeptical father even liked it and was amazed that it was wheat and dairy free. I took some to my sisters on the way home. She liked it too. It was a huge hit. I wouldn't change a thing about it. Well except that it seems to disappear rather quickly. Even my son ate it and that definitely says something.