Barely-passible Aid Station Cooking: Super-moist Sous-vide'd Banana Bread

have you ever found your banana bread to be stupid-dry?
or that you committed yourself to an aid station which operates in a cold, dry winter where everything is susceptible to freezing and drying out?


Welcome to Barely-passible Aid Station Cooking, a segment born out of my propensity to work aid stations as a means of keeping my training regime balanced.  The recipes I share here have worked for me and racers in the past and I hope they can help you too, whether at an aid station or just for general everyday snacking.  

As this is the first entry in this hopefully never-ending segment, there are a few things you should know:

• Everything tastes better when you're exhausted, which means these recipes will not get you any Michelin stars.  They have been tested among racers and colleagues but obviously the sample size is limited and potentially affected by altitude and temperature as well. 
• These recipes are designed for calorie replenishment.  So hopefully you're not here because you're trying to lose weight.  
• I am not a cook or baker.  I have a day job and all this shit is voluntary for reasons soon to become apparent.  

Context
Gord's Frozen Ass 50 is an annual 50k run up and down Calgary's many pathways which occurs on Family Day weekend (for the last 31 years as of writing),  It holds a special place in my heart as it was the 2nd 50k I ran where I executed semi decently (i.e. 10+ kph) but ever since that I've volunteered at this race every year as it is too early season for me to participate satisfactorily.

As the name suggests, this race is cold being in the middle of February; in addition to that, Alberta winters are known to be stupid dry relative to other places further east.  It's not Arrowhead/Frozen Otter cold, but because Gord's is a low-key race put on by a small business owner and not a race management company, luxuries are sparse and conveniences like giant propane heaters/barbecues are not guaranteed.

Alas, for 2019 I decided to try to engineer a banana bread (stuff of champions!) that would not dry out after fiveish hours of exposure in the stupid Alberta winter, using the magic of sous vide cooking.

Nothing about this makes sense on paper, namely because

1. in a vacuum sealed environment, moisture won't escape so wouldn't this shit just get super soggy?
2. you can't brown bread in a sous vide environment because it doesn't get hot enough so it'll just look fuck ugly like an ape with alopecia.

that being said, my inspiration came from these weirdos, but given the reliance of runners on food preparation quality, this recipe will still use a conventional baking oven just for shits.   

Things you'll need

• sous vide circulator/Instant Pot with an Ultra mode (I use the latter since it's close enough)
• whatever you need to do the dough for banana bread
• 5-6 8oz canning jars and lids
• a baking oven
• unsalted butter or oil for greasing up said jars

Steps

1. make the dough.  I'm not going to take credit for a recipe I scammed off someone but I generally prefer this Banana Bread with Walnuts one or Shalane Flanagan/Elyse Kopecky's Spelt Banana Bread in Run Fast Eat Slow.   For the purposes of this I'll be doing the former.
   
2. transfer the dough into 8oz canning jars (sides oiled or buttered with unsalted butter) but do not fill them past the halfway mark.  a loaf usually takes me 5-6 jars.  seal the jars with only your thumb and forefinger ("finger-tight"); we don't want the jars to explode but also don't want [that much] moisture slipping through.
   
   
   
3. wipe the outside of the jars clean and place the jars in a water bath.  run them through for 2h at 195 F. 
   
4. promptly remove all the jars at the end of the cycle.  carefully open a jar; it should look like absolute shit.  if you eat it now, it'll just get stuck to your teeth.  transfer this onto whatever you're baking in with a spoon or knife; you can make a loaf but i'm doing muffins because it's more digestible for runners.  pack it down hard so it doesn't turn into a crumble.  repeat for all the jars while preheating your oven for 375 F. 
   
5. bake for 15 minutes.  do the toothpick test and continue baking as appropriate if the toothpick doesn't come out clean.  cool for an hour before packaging.
    
    
    I still kept these in airtight containers and in a cooler but if you're serving them indoors it should stay fresh for a couple of days.   Enjoy!