Kelsey, I made you banana bread, and I think you're really gonna like it. It's dense, moist, chewy, with a twist of cinnamon and cheap. I made this on Wednesday, and it's Friday, that means I ate the whole pan in very little time, mostly for dinner in fact, or lunch, hey even breakfast once! smothered with peanut butter and jam. With a couple of carrot sticks and broccoli stems, what more could a gal ask for? It's the perfect snack and as long as you have two eggs and three ripe ripe bananas, you're more than set, the rest should be in your pantry (as they like to call it).
I'm a huge fan of Molly Wizenberg. Her writing is too good and her recipes too enthusiastic, ranging in excellence for those of decadent or peasant natures. She also has a thing for banana bread. I'm lucky because I have a savings account of bananas in my freezer. The girl I live with is rather "particular" and she hates spots on her bananas, and she always buys bananas, so at the end of the week there's usually one or two over-ripe bananas that are just screaming to be used and loved. There's no better way than to bake them into a warm, soft loaf of bread which helps soothe the soul and/or vamps up the energy level when needed. During My last summer tree-planting, if there was banana bread for breakfast (which there often was) I usually ate at least 3 pieces (alternating bites with slurps of very hot black coffee) and took 2 more for my lunch. It seemed I was always running towards the rumbling diesel truck at the last minute with a piece in my hand, leaping up into the seat, ready, grinning, munching. Oh! What a joyous food it is!
Of course, where were we? Molly, yes yes, Molly. She first got this recipe from the blog Everybody Likes Sandwiches: a totally excellent no-fuss Vancouver gal who writes about food (like so many of us do!) I found the recipe on Orangette a couple of weeks ago and said eh! no milk? no butter? what? And then I tried it.... I shared it on the solstice with a gang of right-brained, scientifically oriented biker boys. We went on an excursion to the F-1 racing track in Montreal to ride our bikes around and around and around. After I got my second flat tire, (they repaired the first one) and it was 1 in the morning, I decided it would be a good time for a little snack. With exclamations of mmmhh! delicious! and wow! they said it was the best banana bread they'd ever had. Which is something.
Banana bread with chocolate and cinnamon sugar
As adapted from Molly Wizenberg's recipe
The remaining piece you see before your eyes does not contain chocolate, or the cinnamon sugar topping 'cause I riffed a bit on the recipe (translation: I had no more chocolate chips). I'm going to give you my adaptation of the original, with the chocolate incorporated because that's how I made it first and it was darn darn good.
3 ripe bananas
2 large eggs*
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 C chocolate chips
*you could try only one, but I have a feeling the texture might be a little heavier.
Topping:
2 TBP sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Combine well: the bananas (mash 'em up), eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and 3/4 of the chocolate chips
- In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon
- add dry to wet
- pour into 9 X 9 square pan (or any other pan you want to use, just adjust baking times, but something tells me that something flatter would be best, like a cake pan.)
- mix up topping
- sprinkle remaining chocolate chips over the top
- sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top
* note: I added 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp cardamom to the recipe I just made without the chocolate chips. I also sprinkled cinnamon and ginger on the top and held the sugar. Basically, you could do anything you want. So go nuts. (Nuts! would be a great idea by the way.)
Bake for 35-40 min. (I actually undercooked this most recent loaf and....it was fine....but really, the first time was dead on. It of course, it depends on your oven.)
Hope you love it!
- chef murph
I cannot wait to make this! Thank you thank you.
ReplyDeleteWe are going to South Dakota for July 4th. Won't be back until middle of next week sometime - but look forward to cooking up a batch pronto.
NO BUTTER. Marvelous.