Professor Butter Beard’s “Ra Horakhty”
During this past week, I have been soulfully drawn out of my morning meditation by a sensation of light and warmth as the sunrise stretches through the front window. I find myself breathing in deeply and a small smile grows as I hear Nellie stretching and shaking her ears and collar as a not-so-subtle audible nudge for me to re-emerge and get her outside so she can scare a few waking deer in the nearby park. If I am lucky, I can sneak in just enough time to start a pot of Joe perking in the kitchen before we venture out to greet the dawn.
I fully understand why the ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun as a god. For them, the sun was the giver of life, the controller of the ripening of the crops and the benefactor of the light and warmth necessary for those who worked the fields and gathered the harvest. According to Egyptian mythology, the sun god Ra sailed his wooden boat daily across the sky, rising strong from the east but weakening as he sailed into the evening west. Leaving the moon in his place to light the world, he would die as he entered the underworld only to be reborn every morning to re-emerge triumphant from the east.
Ra is commonly depicted in human form with the head of a falcon and crowned with a golden sun disk encircled with a sacred cobra. The talented artists were trained specifically to emphasize the most distinguishable features of the heroic falcon: the vertical black facial marking resembling a fierce mustache; the sharp downward pointed hooked tooth used to kill prey by severing the vertebras behind the head; and the dynamic large jet-black eye, combining the pupil and iris to provide extremely acute vision. Ra’s golden sun disc – the symbol of the sun itself – was later adopted by Christians in the form of a “halo” signifying perfection, divinity and holiness.
My Banana Gingerbread also borrows its base from something familiar and comforting and elevates it to a new level with the addition of warming gingerbread spices and molasses. The long slices of bananas arranged on the top and dusted with granulated sugar before baking transform into a deliciously crunchy and creamy “frosting.” Enjoy the warmth and give a smile and a wink to the morning sun!
Banana Gingerbread Loaves
2 Loaves
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Kosher salt
2 Tbsp ground ginger
4 tsp cinnamon
2 medium oranges
7 medium-sized bananas – the riper the better!
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sour cream
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cup dark brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 Tbsp dark molasses
2 tsp vanilla paste
White sugar to sprinkle on the loaves before baking, about 2 Tbsp per loaf
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2) Spray two 8-9” loaf pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper
3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Zest both of the oranges into the dry mix and whisk again.
4) In another medium bowl, mash (I use a potato masher) six of the bananas with the buttermilk and sour cream and the juice of one of the oranges. Save the one least ripe of the seven bananas to decorate the top of the loaves.
5) In a standing mixer, cream the butter and the brown sugar. When the mix is light and fluffy, slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time. Once incorporated, slowly beat in the molasses and vanilla paste.
6) With the mixer on low, add the banana mix. Then add the dry mix, mixing until just combined and smooth. Do not overbeat and add too much air – the loaves will overflow in your oven!
7) Divide the batter between the two prepared loaf pans
8) Slice the remaining banana into four full-length strips and lay two strips on each of the two loaves. Sprinkle the sugar over the bananas and tops of the unbaked loaves
9) Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean. This should take about one hour – but start testing at 50 minutes.
10) Let the finished loaves cool in the pans on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes.
