The best chocolate banana bread!

Delicious chocolate chip banana bread.  Yummm.

My lovely sous chefs... Miz Em (L) and Miz Jess (R)

It's been a rough road since my fall last June, but with the help of my two sous chefs (Miz Jess and Mizz Em), i've finally cooked something and am blogging about it.  Yay, and thank you both for your help.  You came over to swim, and I put you to work.  But seriously, I wouldn't have done this without your help!

So a couple weeks ago i had a delicious banana bread and Colleen said it's really easy and the reason she thinks it's so good is it's made with buttermilk.  I found this recipe online and thought it sounds like Colleen's, so i'll give it a try.  The only thing i did different, is i used whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular baking flour, and then my sous chefs convinced me a little dark chocolate couldn't hurt.  Yes, we could have opted for nuts, but why use nuts when you have good dark chocolate?  One other thing... next time i see no reason to use the stand mixer.  It would have been just fine to use a large bowl and fork to mix it.  I think it came out delicious!  Dense, but not too dense; Nice banana aroma but not too much banana; and a hint of chocolate, without over doing it!

Ingredients --

•  2 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup mashed bananas (overly ripe work best)
• 1-1/2 cups white sugar
• 1-3//4 cups all purpose flour  whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Optional:  1/2 cup chopped nuts (or chocolate or raisins)

Preheat oven to 3258° F.
Spray or grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Blend together the eggs, buttermilk, oil and bananas.
Sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt.  Add to the banana mixture and stir in nuts, chocolate or raisins.  Mix well.
Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

And remember... next time you have bananas that are overly ripe, don't throw them out... make banana bread.

Buon appetito!

Jacked-up Banana Bread

Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com.



My office always has a few extra bananas at the end of the week which always get thrown out.  I'm always telling people they should be taking them home to make banana bread.  Well, years later and still no banana bread, i decided to see what i could do with those over-ripe bananas.

This recipe looks rather simple and, disappointingly, no need to use my new KitchenAid stand mixer, but i decided to give it a try anyway.  The smittenkitchen recipe called for light brown sugar, but i opted for dark brown muscavado.  I like the richness and coarse texture of muscavado which i thought would enhance a ruggid bread like this.  I'll let you know after my office tasters try it tomorrow.

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted saslted butter
3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar (i used 1 cup of lightly packed dark brown muscavado)
1 egg, beaten (oops, i forgot to beat the egg first)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (i omitted and used a little extra cinnamon)
Pinch of ground cloves
1-1/2 cup of flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. 
Mix in the sugar, egg (already beaten), vanilla and bourbon, then add the spices.
Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. 
Add the flour last and mix.
Pour the mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.
Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool on a rack.  Remove from pan and slice to serve.

The banana bread smells delish and is very moist.  I just hope everyone likes banana bread, because i'm not sure i do.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow to try something new.