Recipe: Blueberry Banana Bread (in a rice cooker!)

One ripe banana.

One bag frozen blueberries.

Ok, fruit. It’s on.

The Goal:  Rice cooker bread

While I am one of the lucky few who has a microwave/oven, my very well-equipped kitchen is somehow lacking a loaf pan.  So I decided to put to the test the rumor that you can make banana bread in a rice cooker.  What I did below was the result of modifications to my favorite banana bread recipe and these instructions.

Note: I only had 1 banana in the fridge and adjusted the recipe accordingly.  This made a fairly thin banana bread.  If you choose to double the recipe, please remember that it will probably take longer to cook!

Mmmm, raw ingredients

Ingredients:

1 very ripe banana

¹/₆ cup melted butter (guesstimated)

½ cup sugar (or slightly less--it will still be delicious!)

½ egg, beaten (fry up the other half for a mini omelette the next day!)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 – 1½ teaspoons baking powder (or ½ teaspoon baking soda if you have it)

¾ cup flour

½ cup frozen blueberries (or chocolate chips, chopped nuts... whatever else you like!)

Yep, it's really that easy

Directions:

In a separate bowl (do not use your rice cooker bowl!), mash the banana with your rice spoon or a fork.  Stir in the butter.

Mix in the baking powder and salt.  Stir in the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract.  Mix in the flour.

Defrost the frozen blueberries under warm water, then fold into the batter.

Use a paper towel to coat the inside of your rice cooker bowl with canola oil so your bread doesn't stick!

Pour your batter in, close the lid, and start cooking on a normal rice cycle.  (My bread took 2 cycles to cook.)

Carefully take out the bread and serve it upside-down so the yummy baked side is showing.  (In hindsight, this would probably look even tastier with powdered sugar, blueberry sauce, or chocolate sauce on top.  Your creativity's the limit!)

Itadakimasu!

Rice cooker success!  Now on to white rice...