Saturday, May 19, 2012

Yes! We Have No Bananas

Because they're in the bread!

We always buy too many bananas. Ed loves them, I enjoy them once in a while, but we never seem to get it through our heads that bananas can only last so long on the kitchen counter in our truck. Usually we throw them away.
But today, they became banana bread.

The recipe I used is from the February 2000 issue of Bon Appétit magazine, and I think it's the best banana bread I've ever tasted in my life. Moist, banana-ry, lots of nuts, chocolate.
Although, I will say one thing - words I never thought would come out of my mouth - I think it might have been a wee bit too chocolatey. Next time, I'll reduce the amount of chocolate chips, but other than that, wouldn't change a thing. I served a slice of it for dessert with a dollop of fresh whipped cream - we love it, and it's now going into my recipe vault as the only banana bread I'll be making.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:


Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup walnuts, toasted, chopped
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter and flour 9x5x2 ½ inch metal loaf pan. Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Combine chocolate chips and walnuts in small bowl; add 1 tablespoon flour mixture and toss to coat.

Beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat in flour mixture. Spoon 1/3 of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of nut mixture. Spoon 1/3 batter over. Sprinkle with remaining nut mixture. Cover with remaining batter. Run knife through batter in a zigzag pattern.

Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

Belledog said...

Whoa, that looks good.

Glad you and Ed are getting a little downtime. Thinking the trucking gods will come up with some interesting loads for you soon. Bees or bee-less.

Are you trying to be any particular place for Memorial Day weekend, or is that just another weekend for you?

Enjoy NYC.

PS: It's incredibly clear and beautiful in Virginia this weekend. Ate dinner on the deck last night. A bike ride beckons today.

Marlaina said...

What is it about men and bananas? MacGyver loves bananas, he can eat one a day. Me? Once every two or three weeks, if then. The other weird man-and-food item is blue cheese. Single men hate blue cheese, married men love it. MacGyver started loving blue cheese very soon after we got married - go figure? Wish I had an oven or stove in my tractor.

The Daily Rant said...

BELLEDOG: It was very good! We don't have any Memorial Day plans - just another day for us - although, leading up to it there are tons of travelers on the roads and the rest areas are usually packed. Don't like that too much. :)

Marlaina: Yeah, Ed loves bananas too. And, blue cheese - even though he's not married! In fact, it was Ed who got ME into blue cheese. I never liked it before, but he would always order blue cheese dressing...so I tried it. Every once in a while I'll have it on salad, but I prefer it in crumbles. :)