Slow Cooker Banana Bread

We're big fans of The Great British Baking Show.  You'd think a baking show wouldn't be all that exciting, but there's just something about it that makes it addictive.  The hosts' witty banter.  Mary Berry's wise yet welcoming demeanor.  Paul Hollywood's snarky disposition.  The contestants' creative ideas.  The British accents.  Overall, it's a fun window into just how challenging it is to be an excellent baker.  We really should appreciate quality baked goods more!

Anyways, we've been watching it every night lately because they just released new seasons on Netflix.  So when we had three bananas ripen too fast to be eaten, Mel's first thought jumped to banana bread.  The one hitch is that Mel is by no means into baking.  It requires much more careful measuring and timing than cooking, and it's much harder to mask mistakes.  So rather than braving an oven bake, she searched for a recipe that would use the trusty slow cooker and found one for Slow Cooker Banana Bread with Brown Sugar Sauce that looked pretty easy to follow.  She decided to skip the brown sugar sauce in the hopes that our little guy would try some (we're trying to get him into a wider variety of foods and he has yet to fall in love with bread).  She also greased the side of the slow cooker with butter rather than cooking spray.  Otherwise, the recipe was followed to the letter.  Unfortunately, the end result was less than desirable.  If it were being judged by Mary and Paul, the word "underbaked" would be featured prominently. 

The big mistake:  using butter to grease the slow cooker.  By the hour and a half mark, the sides were becoming too brown but the center was still raw.  Mel tried leaving it on a bit longer, but the sides just kept getting darker and there was no hope for that center.  So she wound up cutting the raw part out and saving the edge pieces that were still edible.  

The portions we were left with had good flavor, so we may try this recipe again and use cooking spray.  But more than likely, we'll give a good old oven bake a try instead.  In the meantime, we'll keep watching our friends from across the pond and hopefully become better bakers by osmosis.

CORRECTION: March 14

Mel realized that this recipe was screwed up because she didn't put the slow cooker cover on properly and too much air was escaping!  ::forehead slap::  So we tried it again to give it a fair shake.  Verdict:  not bad at all!  When cooked properly, the texture is actually nice and light.  And thanks to using cooking spray instead of butter to grease the slow cooker, the whole loaf lifted out perfectly.  The curved edges still got a bit burnt, but overall we were pleased and will keep this recipe around for times when we have some super ripe bananas we don't want to waste.