Summer has been very warm and humid in Toronto. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining because February comes all too quickly and the -25° C (-13° F) is still too fresh in my mind but I really don’t like to turn the oven on (particularly for a recipe that calls for one hour!) when it’s that hot outside (it makes the A/C work even harder). So I modified this recipe to be baked on the Barbie with ingredients I had on hand.
Give this a light toasting to get even more flavour out of the loaf.
We’ve been spending a lot of time at the cottage this year, JT has some council meetings and we like to avoid the traditional weekend traffic so we go up Thursday and come back Tuesday or even go up Sunday and come back Friday. It’s been great, neither of us stresses about weekend traffic anymore! But having so much time at the cottage can be a bit boring, so I prefer to have projects lined up so I can amuse myself without spending a lot of time on the computer. I had been looking for a small cocktail table to set between two chairs in our living area but it had to be rustic and small and sadly I couldn’t find anything.
I was inspired by rustic tables made of a cross section of a log with sticks as legs like this one:
But I was stuck on how to slice a log so that it’s perfectly even on both sides because we have limited tools. And then I found this log tea light at Winners (TJ Max) in the right diametre for a reasonable price and my little table was born.
JT and I sourced the legs in the forest, we had to make sure they were not too new or too old or had bugs in them (you know how I feel about that). I cut the legs to size in the city (I have a table saw) and then I assembled the table at the cottage while JT was at a meeting, just in time to receive our good friends for a weekend.
Unfortunately, I turned around for a split second and my friend pulled the new table up to the movies on the shelf hoping to find something she hadn’t seen before and…yep…you guessed it…she thought it was a stool and sat on it! #notastool was the hashtag for the weekend. I ended up disassembling it and starting from scratch. Fortunately the table top was in tact so all I did was rebuild the legs.
When I perused the net for banana bread recipes, I noticed that many of them had a lot of sugar. A LOT! I was hoping for something less sweet so that it’s a bit healthier when I found Cookie and Kate’s recipe. I would have made it verbatim but then I realized that I was short of a few ingredients so I improvised. I liked the idea of whole wheat flour but I didn’t want 100% of it, so I divided the flour into 1:3/4 so the texture is a little smoother (plus I didn’t have white whole wheat flour on hand — what is that anyway?). The bread is wonderful when it is lightly toasted and smothered with butter with a cup of tea. It will sooth away any bruises caused by using a table as a stool, that was not meant as a stool. #notastool.
Banana Bread
Original recipe, please click here. This recipe makes one generous 10 cm x 23 cm (4″x 9″) loaf
Ingredients:
- 125 mL (1/2 cup) melted coconut oil
- 60 mL (1/4 cup) honey
- 60 mL (1/4 cup) milk
- 60 mL (1/4 cup) water
- 5 mL (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 125 mL (1/2 cup) roughly mashed ripe bananas (about 2 smallish bananas)
- 60 mL (1/4 cup) dates
- 128 g (1 cup) whole wheat flour
- 94 g (3/4 cup) AP flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2.5 mL (½ teaspoon) ground cinnamon, plus more to swirl on top
- 2.5 mL (½ teaspoon)salt
- 70 g (½ cup) chopped almonds
Directions:
- Preheat the BBQ to 177 ° C (350° F) using only the front and back burners. Prepare a 10 cm x 23 cm (4″ x 9″) loaf pan by generously spraying with non-stick baking spray.
- In the large bowl of a food processor, add melted coconut oil, honey, milk, water, vanilla extract, eggs, bananas and dates and pulse until dates and bananas have been well incorporated into the liquid.
- Sift the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add all at once to the liquid and pulse a few times to incorporate. Stir in chopped almonds.
- Pour into prepared pan and set into a larger pan. Place pan into the centre of the BBQ so that the elements that are on are not below the loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean (mine was perfect in 50 minutes).

Congratulations, Eva, for the table! I am thinking of making my own living room table actually…. All those made with real wood are horribly expensive here and those I like…. well I cannot afford them, so I decided to play with hammers, saws and nails!
What about painting/spraying it in gold or silver? It might be quite interesting as a contrast….
Your bread looks fantastic of course!
LikeLiked by 1 person
How cool is that! There are so many YouTube videos out there so you can see where others failed (I’d be too embarrassed to post a failure) and do it differently. IKEA has some fantastic table legs ready made, because I find the legs to be the most difficult. I hope you will send me some pics.
I like the idea of spraying the legs, I’ve bought some paint but I’m not ready yet. Perhaps that will be my first project next year.
LikeLike
Fantastic table, Eva, and what a great project to tackle at the cabin. I bought bananas at the start of summer and they’re all in my freezer, waiting for temps to cool so that I can bake something with them. I had thought of making muffins so that I could freeze most but this bread of yours sure does sound good! There just might be a change in my plans — or I could just go out and buy a few more bananas! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi John, thank you for your kind words. If you cut the skin off and slice them into your blender, blend with some coco powder and honey, you’ll get the most delightful banana ice cream made without cream! Because it’s been just too damn hot to turn on the oven.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny you mentioned this, Eva. Just this past week in Michigan I explained a similar dish to my cousins. I haven’t the faintest idea why it never occurred to me here, at home, during this past summer. If I had a memory I’d be dangerous! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your table is fabulous! I know the repaired one will be just as lovely. I’ve been meaning to bake up some banana bread as I have 3 bananas in the freezer—now I’m craving it even more! xo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much Liz. I actually made banana ice cream (no cream, just bananas) with my other frozen bananas because it’s been way too hot!
LikeLike
Neat table! And I can see how someone might mistake it for a stool. Heck, I probably would! Anyway, lovely bread. We haven’t made any banana bread for quite some time. But baking season is upon us, so now’s the time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi John, thank you for your kind words. Baking season has not yet made it for me, I seem to be chasing the heat.
LikeLike
We’ve had 85 days about 90 degrees F here this summer. So ready for fall. Your banana bread made on the Barbie sounds like fun and looks delicious. So sorry about table #1.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Betsy, it’s been crazy hot all over, I am so ready for fall too! Thank you for your kind words.
LikeLike
I love your little DIY table Eva. I just love the color, feel and texture of wood!
I had to laugh because you took a picture of the #notastool moment!
I do that too, I run for my camera in moments like that.
I love the dense banana bread! I can only imagine how good it must be toasted
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh dear! Your banana loaf looks really good!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Liz.
LikeLike
I love the not too sweet B-Bread, but it’s that table that is such an inspiration. It’s amazing you found the log tray with those indentations. Sort od a miracle… GREG
LikeLiked by 1 person
I thought so too Greg, thank you for your kind words.
LikeLike
After all your work. You both must have felt terrible. I didn’t think it was a stool, to be honest but I can understand the confusion. I applaud your creativity in any case and your stick-to-it-ness in trying to rebuild.
I’m not a huge fan of banana bread but making on the barbecue is amazing. It looks tasty.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your kind words Maria. It’s been such a hot summer that turning the oven on hasn’t been an option!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Eva, this is all hilarious. I hope you’re seeing the funny side of it. I’m loving a BBQ bread. It’s looks super moist like our malt loaves. Six impressed with your improvisation.
Just as well you hadn’t painted the legs before they were broken!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, David. I know I can be a bit of a ‘stick in the mud’ 😜 but I’m not about to wreck a 25 year friendship over a silly home-made table! LOL! The second one turned out much better anyway! Plus, it was fun teasing my dear friend about it all weekend!!! I love using the grill as an oven particularly on hot days, is it still really hot and humid where you are? In Spain, it is brutal! I am actually taking a siesta in the late afternoon to avoid the intense heat. I haven’t napped in the afternoon since I was 3!
LikeLike
Oh my! what a shame 😦 I have a table like that-they call it a gypsy table and thankfully nobody has sat on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great name for this type of table Lorraine, I love that you have one too! Everything worked out in the end, the second time I made it turned out better anyway.
LikeLike
I thought it was a stool too .-)) The banana bread looks perfectly dense and delicious.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wouldn’t have blamed you for sitting on it either Angie, that is what friendship is about.
LikeLike