Tonight, I had a quick bread disaster. I totally forgot to put in the leavening. Since then, I decided to post this so you can see the importance of those two little ingredients in quick bread.

I had this amazing recipe for banana bread. It developed it over the years from a recipe I found on online that was too generous with butter and sugar (they wanted a whopping 2 cups of butter and 3 cups of sugar!) I found inspiration from other recipes on the back of bags of flour, in my mom’s recipe books, from friends. Everyone had an idea of what makes a good bread. I found most to be too dry, not enough banana flavor or too sweet or oily. I wanted the perfect loaf. Moist, just sweet and flavorful. Maybe I was asking too much.

So I did what everyone else in the search of a good recipe and is having no luck in making one does: I started modifying the most common recipe. So I went back online, to the bags of flour, and cookbooks and found the one that repeated itself the most. And I started from there. First thing I did was start cutting out the fat. I find that is the first step to a good bread. Find out how much is necessary to have a good flavor versus what is just excess. And repeat with the sugar. Lastly, modify the spices.

And I came up with an amazing recipe. It was wonderful and I had many compliments. Then we moved. And I lost many of my recipes. So the search began again.

I have had a lot of luck with recipes from a retired baker on youtube named John Kirkwood, so I looked up his recipe. And decided to start there. Oh boy. I’m embarrassed to show this. I hope he never reads this post!

Looking back, I’ve learned something so important. Mise en place is essential in good baking. This is the French phrase used often among pastry chefs which roughly translates as “everything in place.” This is so important, especially when you are tired or having a bad day. I was having both.

I ended up with claggy pancakes that even the dogs scoffed at. This is the time in baking, you are thankful if you own chickens. When I double checked my ingredients and I found that I forgot both the leavening agents: baking soda and baking powder.

In case your loaves ever turn out like what is posted below, you’ll know what happened. You either forgot leavening agent or you have a really old batch. Got to say, I’m rather embarrassed to show these loaves, but I started this blog to show that you have to start somewhere with baking. Not everyone wakes up baking bread like Paul Hollywood. What is your equivalent of my quick bread disaster?