Small Plate: A Kiddo Makes Banana Bread

Conner: (00:07)
Welcome to Kiddos in the Kitchen, a podcast hosted by my mom. You need a cup of sugar. You need tasting spoons, one stick--

Stephanie: (00:25)
A stick of butter.

Conner: (00:27)
Yeah, and two large eggs.

Stephanie: (00:28)
How many eggs?

Conner: (00:29)
Two.

Stephanie: (00:29)
Okay, two eggs.

Conner: (00:36)
And then a rip banana.

Stephanie: (00:38)
A rip banana?

Conner: (00:39)
Yeah.

Stephanie: (00:39)
Ripe.

Conner: (00:41)
Ripe, yeah. Yeah, we're baking today but I should've said this at the beginning of the video.

Stephanie: (00:48)
It's not a video.

Stephanie: (00:53)
Welcome to Kiddos in the Kitchen, a podcast about helping busy adults find the inspiration and information they need to teach the kids in their lives how to cook. I'm your host, Stephanie Conner, and in this bonus episode, I'm in the kitchen baking with my son, who is six years old and watches way too many YouTube Kids videos.

Ad: (01:21)
Support for this podcast comes from Active Voice Communications. Whether you're looking for content strategy, or help writing articles, white papers, reports, blog posts and more, Active Voice is here. Learn more at theactivevoice.com.

Stephanie: (01:38)
We began the fun with having Conner read the recipe, and with me getting out all of our ingredients.

Conner: (01:47)
You need about two bananas.

Stephanie: (01:51)
Two ripe bananas, right?

Conner: (01:55)
Yeah, two ripe, ripe, ripe bananas.

Stephanie: (01:55)
Ripe bananas, and what else?

Conner: (02:05)
This is our best ... You need a ginormous spoon.

Stephanie: (02:07)
For what?

Conner: (02:08)
To smash the bananas.

Stephanie: (02:12)
All right, so, I've peeled one banana.

Conner: (02:14)
Yeah, we're actually making this sort of ... If you go along and do it, too, it's very yummy. You will have to put it in the oven, though.

Stephanie: (02:29)
As it turned out, we actually needed three bananas, so we went back and added another one later. The banana smashing is something Conner has enjoyed since he was a toddler.

Stephanie: (02:41)
So then--

Conner: (02:43)
Guys, that might be a whole lot for your ears, but we're trying to make it as quiet so we can.

Stephanie: (02:48)
All right. So we're going to add one tablespoon of milk--

Conner: (02:50)
Mm-hmm (affirmative), you need one tablespoon of milk.

Stephanie: (02:54)
And for us, we're using almond milk.

Conner: (02:57)
Yeah, but you guys don't have to use almond milk too. You can use just regular milk. Because I'm allergic to regular milk, like cow milk and those kinds of things.

Stephanie: (03:12)
So, we have our three smashed, ripe bananas, one tablespoon of milk, and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Conner: (03:22)
So guys, this smells great. And you need another bowl, again.

Stephanie: (03:33)
This bowl is for our dry ingredients: two cups of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of baking soda, and a teaspoon of salt. Here's an opportunity to teach a simple baking tactic, measuring flour. We don't pack flour, and begin with a heaping cup.

Conner: (03:56)
You have it overflowing. You're supposed to have it overflowing. And then you get a spreader, but not the straight side of your knife. And then you carefully pour it, get the flour off. I don't mean slump it out, that's totally not what I mean.

Stephanie: (04:28)
We use the straight side of a butter knife and slide off the excess. Then, Conner gets to dump the cup into the bowl. We add the salt and baking powder and baking soda and set it aside. Now it's time for the wet ingredients. And Conner is going to crack the eggs.

Conner: (04:52)
You are a kid. You will need a napkin if you want to crack the eggs.

Stephanie: (04:57)
How do you crack an egg?

Conner: (04:59)
First, you start off with an egg. And then you--

Stephanie: (05:07)
Not on the side of that though, right?

Conner: (05:08)
You crack it--

Stephanie: (05:09)
On a flat surface.

Conner: (05:10)
On a flat surface.

Stephanie: (05:11)
So you tap, tap, tap.

Conner: (05:13)
So you tap, tap, tap, not smash, smash, smash.

Stephanie: (05:18)
That's right, tap, tap, tap. What are we waiting for? Want to spin it around a little? Now let's see. Oh, it's starting to come, I think.

Conner: (05:33)
Guys, I told you: It is messy for a kid. It's time for the second one.

Stephanie: (05:38)
Tap, tap.

Conner: (05:40)
You first start--

Stephanie: (05:41)
No, on the side. On a flat surface.

Conner: (05:42)
You do tap, tap. So you basically do the same thing as you've done.

Stephanie: (05:54)
Good.

Conner: (05:56)
Guys, that was the best one.

Stephanie: (05:58)
That was perfect. Hey, you got egg on your fingers and on your arms so go wash hands.

Conner: (06:03)
Guys, guys, I'll be back in just one minute.

Stephanie: (06:09)
When Conner is cracking an egg, I keep a wet cloth or paper towel nearby, so he can wipe his hands. Sometimes we end up with egg all over the counter, but for the most part, he's got it down. Next, we have a stick of melted or room temperature butter. From experience, I can tell you a dairy-free butter, like Earth Balance, will work just fine. Now we're ready to combine our butter and a cup of sugar.

Conner: (06:35)
Hi guys, I'm back. You need to get your mixer out. A hand mixer. Yeah, to hold it while you mix.

Stephanie: (06:48)
You have to hold the mixer and the bowl.

Conner: (06:53)
Uh-huh (affirmative). So one hand on the mixer and the second hand on the thing.

Stephanie: (07:06)
Okay, now I'm going to put my two eggs in.

Conner: (07:06)
Now you put the two eggs in. Now it's looking a little bit gross. But just like I said, it might not taste gross, but it might look gross.

Stephanie: (07:21)
Okay. While you mix, I'm going to put in a little bit of banana mixture.

Conner: (07:29)
We need banana mix.

Stephanie: (07:32)
Banana mixture and flour.

Conner: (07:34)
We need the flour, too, and then the dry ingredients. I'll tell you what those are: flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Guys, you should write it in your notebook. So you remember. Or you could just go back into the video.

Conner: (08:14)
Guys, this might be loud for your ears, but, this is what all mixers sound like. We're mixing it up. We're mixing it up.

Stephanie: (08:27)
Next, we pour our batter into a 9-inch loaf pan that we've already sprayed with some olive oil. So

Stephanie: (08:40)
All right, our loaf pan is greased. And now, we pour. Do you want to hold the bowl or do you want to spoon it in?

Conner: (08:56)
I want to hold the bowl. So, guys, I'm going to be holding the bowl, but you might need your parents if you are doing it by yourself to help you with scooping it. But your job is to hold the bowl. It smells so good, guys. You bake it at 325. That's how hot the oven is for an hour or an hour and 10 minutes.

Stephanie: (09:28)
We're going to check it in an hour. And what time will it be in an hour? It's 3:29 right now.

Conner: (09:38)
So it'll be 4:29.

Stephanie: (09:40)
That's right.

Conner: (09:42)
Well, here. But if you're watching this at a different time--

Stephanie: (09:46)
You can't watch it. It's not video.

Conner: (09:49)
Hearing it. Hearing it. Sorry, guys. If you are using--

Stephanie: (09:51)
It's not a video.

Stephanie: (09:54)
Our banana bread was a success. I'll link to the recipe we used in the show notes at kiddosinthekitchen.com. We've edited this, but I think it's important to note that from start to finish, we spent just 25 minutes in the kitchen after school, not including the baking time. Conner talked about a recognition he got at school that day and sang a song he learned in music class. In our time together, he worked on reading, specifically how to read the recipe. He did a little math, and he was actively engaged in the kitchen. He cracked eggs, smashed bananas, measured dry ingredients, operated the mixer, and helped transfer the batter into the pan. Looking back, my greatest error was in letting him leave the kitchen without helping to clean up. But, and I can't stress this enough, the most important thing is we spent time together and had some fun. As a bonus, that evening we had delicious banana bread. What do you think of the banana bread?

Conner: (11:00)
It's good.

Stephanie: (11:02)
Is it the best banana bread we've made?

Conner: (11:03)
It's probably the best one.

Stephanie: (11:03)
It's probably the best one? What do you think you want to make next? Your mouth's too full.

Conner: (11:10)
A banana, how to make it.

Stephanie: (11:13)
How to make a banana?

Conner: (11:14)
Yeah.

Stephanie: (11:15)
You're silly.

Conner: (11:16)
It is possible, guys.

Stephanie: (11:18)
No, it's not. Okay, I've got to make dinner.

Stephanie: (11:24)
Thanks for joining me for this Kiddos in the Kitchen Small Plate. I'm your host, Stephanie Conner, with a reminder from my son.

Conner: (11:31)
If you like my mom's podcast as much as I do, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Stephanie: (11:50)
That's right, Conner. You can also view the show notes, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out all of our other content at kiddosinthekitchen.com, we're kiddos cook on