The nostalgia of baking and meeting kindred souls
My talk with Zoë François and a go-to banana bread that feels like home
This week’s recipe: Normally this time of year I’m baking up any late-summer fruit I can find so I can hold onto the season, but I was in a very homey, staying-in-and-comfort-baking mood this week and felt like having some banana bread. The warm smell of bananas, butter, and cinnamon baking sends me straight to my mom’s kitchen back east, circa 1978—and in keeping with the times, there definitely would have been whole wheat flour in the mix, and my mom would’ve reduced the sugar by half.
This banana bread recipe makes a loaf with a finely textured crumb and a nice toothsome bite, a little like a less-rich pound cake. I want to try the cake base with other common cake/bread add-ins like zucchini and apple; it’s uncommonly good for a gluten-free cake, in fact I would put it up against any wheat-filled banana bread.
The Salted-Butter-Rum Icing is essentially the same thing as a British hard sauce, made with butter, confectioners’ sugar, and rum in place of the usual whiskey or brandy. If your’e not familiar, it’s traditionally served cold with a steamed pudding, but I love it with a sweet bread or cake as a flavorful “schmear”. You could make it non-alcoholic with extra vanilla extract. It’s not “saucy” at all, but very firm in texture; my guess is it’s called a sauce in terms of accompaniment and one of those old English words that has hung on through the ages.
Part of the appeal of hard sauce is the contrast in temperatures and textures: warm, dense cake with chilled, firm hard sauce. You can serve this icing/sauce
Zoë François: I’ve been “in conversation” with a number of cookbook authors lately at our local—and only—culinary bookstore, Omnivore Books (it’s a must-visit if you come to San Francisco and love modern and vintage culinary books). Last month I interviewed Renato Poliafito, the chef/owner of Caio, Gloria in Brooklyn, for the release of his wonderful Italian American baking book Dolci!
This past week I interviewed Zoë François for the release of her new book, Zoë Bakes Cookies, which Dorie Greenspan calls “…a magical book for every cookie lover”.
Zoë is as delightful, charming, and enthusiastic about baking as her appearances on TV would lead you to believe, and in doing my research on her I realized we had a lot in common: she grew up on a commune where residents grew their own food, and although sugar was forbidden, they had honey from their own hives. I didn’t grow up on a commune, but I lived in a “brown rice/no soda/yoga” home where we kept bees, raised goats and ducks, grew all of our own vegetables and fruit, and tapped maple trees to make syrup. We also both went to the CIA at Hyde Park, worked our way through professional kitchens of the ‘90s, and have some Scandinavian heritage. When I met her, I felt like I’d met a long-lost sister and felt an immediate connection to her in that particular way that you get from shared childhood experiences.
Zoë has generously offered one of her (GF) recipes from her new book to readers of Have Your Cake. Cast your vote!
Have a good weekend, all!
Liz