French Baking Attempt #1: Banana Bread

So I made banana bread! It's been a longtime favorite of mine, and not too complicated, so I figured I'd try it out in France. And it turned out really well!...once I got all of the ingredients. That was the biggest issue. (Skip the next few paragraphs if you don't want to hear me rant about baking powder and baking soda...)

First of all, let's look at the recipe. Wait, never mind, just found it again, and it's in French. That wouldn't really be worth posting. Anyway, the most difficult part was finding baking powder (poudre à pâte) and baking soda (bicarbonate de sodium). I asked my host dad if we had either, and he said that we had poudre à pâte... but he called it yeast. "No, not yeast. I'm making bread, but not a yeast bread" "Poudre à pâte is yeast" "Then I don't want that." We went on like this for about 5 minutes before I actually looked at said "yeast", realized it was baking powder, and brushed it off as some some of French/English misunderstanding that was actually probably my fault.

Next...baking soda. I had just gotten back from the grocery store (buying walnuts, which are incredibly expensive) and I asked where the baking soda was. We apparently didn't have any. Apparently my French family isn't big on baking soda. So I walked back to the grocery store (only about 5 minutes away), and they didn't have any either. They did, however, have like 30 different types of flan mix...? Not relevant. Sorry. So yeah, I guess French people in GENERAL aren't big on baking soda.

I came back, disappointed, because I know that you can't just leave out the baking soda (the horror!) and that my bread plan wasn't going to work. My host dad said not to worry, and that he was going to the pharmacy and would see if he could find any for me there.

Now, just so you all know, pharmacies in France are totally different than in the US. In the States, Rite Aid, CVS, Eckerd (RIP) are all pharmacies that sell medicine, but also food, toys, magazines, makeup, etc. In France, pharmacies sell medicine. And that's it. Only things pertaining to health. So I really wasn't expecting any miracles.

...and 20 minutes later, my host dad comes back with baking soda in a pharmacy bag. Go figure.

After that, everything was pretty much smooth sailing... except for not having a cup measurer and having to measure everything with a tablespoon...



And not having regular vanilla- instead, we had this vanilla sugar stuff. Which was actually delicious and I ate the leftovers in the packet...


Bread in pan. There would've been more, but I left a fair amount in the bowl to eat...


I would've got a photo after it came out of the oven, but I was in a rush to go into town and I forgot. And then the next day, it was served at lunch, and it was quickly finished off. Random French quirk: they kept calling it cake. Like, over and over and over again.
"Mmm this banana cake is so good. Do you make it often in the States?"
"Yes, I do. And we actually call it banana bread."
"But it's not bread. It's cake."
"Hmmm well we call it bread."
"Did you put sugar in it?"
"...yes?"
"Then it's cake."

And they all ate it with their forks. Who eats banana bread with a fork?! Apparently the French. I'm not complaining though... they can eat it with chopsticks or whatever as long as they keep singing my praises...