Making Your Instafeed Camera Ready During COVID-19 with Simple Recipes

We have enjoyed the Farmers Market Subscription Box service the last almost 8 weeks and being able to give back to the community who has given us so much. While this endeavor has not been a moneymaker for us, and in fact has cost us quite a bit, we have become closer as a team within our office, closer to our members who needed us as an outlet to sell and closer to the community we serve.

We’ve also noticed that social media feeds are looking a lot different since COVID-19 made folks stay home. Where we’re used to seeing fabulous photos of fancy food, we’re seeing everyone’s homegrown and handmade efforts at entertainment, food, decorating, gardening and more! And one of the top trending items to purchase online right now? Can you guess? Yeast. Why? Because everyone wants the perfect photo of their perfect loaf of handmade bread and now yeast is hard to come by! So here are two quick recipes for bread that will give you the perfect photo but no yeast required!

First up is the best banana bread! If you’ve never made your own, it really is simple! Good banana bread should be light, moist and most importantly taste good! If you grab a loaf somewhere and it’s dense and heavy that means it’s been beaten too much, maybe made in large batches where it’s hard to control the ingredients and do things like fold in the dry ingredients. The key to this recipe is the use of 6 (yes, we said 6) bananas.

The Best Banana Bread

Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened to room temp but not melted
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
6 medium/large overly ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups self-rising flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the sugars and butter. Don’t rush through this part, it should take a few minutes. You want it to be light and fluffy. Slowly add in the vanilla and eggs and continue to mix. Next add the bananas (which you have taken the time to mash) and continue to mix. Finally, you will fold in the flour. You want to fold it in until no dry flour streaks remain. If you over mix then it can result in a coarse/dry texture. Finally put in a greased loaf pan and bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool 15-20 minutes and invert on a plate. If you want to add nuts you can do that as well!

Next up we have a classic beer bread. Why beer you ask? Well because yeast has been SO hard to come by. We’ve been all over Liberty County and it’s like finding toilet paper right now, impossible. But beer bread is so simple and the beer replaces the yeast! Since beer and bread have a common creation process and that is yeast which is used to turn sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol. And it does evaporate in the cooking process so you don’t have to stress if you’re not a beer person. We think the best part of this bread isn’t the beer, it’s the butter! It essentially boils around the bread while it cooks, just YUM! It makes the top crunchy and keeps this bread from getting dry.

Beer Bread

Ingredients:
3 cups self-rising flour
¼ cup honey
½ cup butter (melted)
1 can (12 oz) beer of your choice

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix flour, honey and beer by hand in a bowl. If you try to use a mixer we recommend the paddle attachment as this dough is super sticky. Take half the melted butter and pour into your loaf pan. Use a pastry brush to make sure the sides and bottom are coated. Pour in your dough and smooth it out. Pour the rest of the butter on top and again use your pastry brush to make sure it’s evenly distributed. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center can be removed clean. The second-best part of this bread is if you want to make a different kind you add different extras. For example, you can eliminate the honey and add minced garlic (2 tbsp), rosemary (1 tbsp) and shredded cheddar (1 cup) and have a cheesy garlic bread to go with your spaghetti! Or maybe use a sweet beer like an ale and add some minced apples and brown sugar. Really the sky is the limit with this one.