Taste Test Tuesday: Rice Cooker Banana Bread

This week I decided to share a way of cooking bread rather than an actual recipe.  On my mission, the missionary apartments didn't have regular ovens.  There was a stove top, a rice cooker and a toaster or toaster oven in which to cook food.  My mission president's wife taught us to make banana bread in a rice cooker.  The rice cookers I became familiar with had both a bowl for the rice/water and a outside bowl for water--so a water bath type thing, so cooking bread only meant putting the bread in the inner bowl filling the outer bowl with water.  Well, as you can see from the picture I had to improvise since the rice cooker I have doesn't have a water bowl. 

So...To make banana bread (or other breads) in a rice cooker:  You will need a pan or pot of some sort that will fit inside your rice cooker, with enough room for enough water to boil while baking.  In the picture above I wrapped a heat-resistant flower pot with aluminum foil just to be sure water didn't seep through.  Also, from the picture, you may notice that the water boiled out and the rice cooker pan got a little burned water marks on the bottom, not to worry they come off, but in the future I will be sure to add more water (or at least be sure to pay attention to the cooker more--I just turned it on and didn't pay much attention to it-oops).   Because the rice cooker has less room than a regular oven, you will want to split your banana recipe in half or you'll end up making some in the rice cooker and some in the oven.  (the recipe I used was to make 1 loaf, it made the above plus about half a loaf in a regular bread pan in the oven).

Just in case you may be wondering:  the flower pot I used came with a cranberry-orange muffin/cake mix set a family member gave to my family once, it can be used to bake in a regular oven and now a rice cooker as well.  With using a flower pot, you need to double grease the bottom and interior sides with oil or shortening or spray, and like a dutch oven you don't use soap to clean it, simply use warm water and a cloth to rub it clean.  Though you don't have to grease it up to store away like a dutch oven, simply clean it and make sure it is dry before putting it away.

Perhaps next time I'll have to try cooking bread on the stove-top, using this rice cooker method of pot inside a pot.  You never know when you won't have an actual oven to use and have a hankering for banana bread!

Have fun trying different methods of making and baking your foods!