Howdy y'all! It's been a while. Like, last published at the end of 2016 kind of while....
To be fair, 2017 was a bit of a busy year for me. Spring was a hectic time for work. Summer I traveled to three different states (California, Arizona, and Illinois). Oh yeah, and then I spent the last six months of the year planning a wedding...(to learn about fun bride-to-be exploits, check out my Engagement Entertainment blog).
But now I've settled in to married life, put away all those bridal shower gifts and registry items in the kitchen, and gotten back into baking...for fun!
I've had a few recipes that I've tried out in 2017 that I hope to post soon, such as a rice cooker birthday cake for my brother, and some breakfast egg dishes while married.
But today is all about going bananas.
I've made a lot of banana breads over the years--lots of banana items in general, and yet I couldn't help experimenting with a new recipe when I saw the video on Facebook from "I am Homesteader"'s Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I needed something to occupy my mind while recovering from a small medical procedure, and I was desperate to eat real food again. My husband saw me watching the video and asked me if I was going to make banana bread.
"Why not?" I thought, and figured it might be a nice married couple bonding moment, if I could get him to help me out. We really needed to do something with the browning bananas on our counter, and I had recently cleaned our downstairs from top to bottom. I was ready to create something.
While experimenting with recipes can be hit or miss, when I discovered I was missing a few key ingredients for the recipe online I ended up having to substitute. I must admit these substitutions resulted in an extra tasty end result.
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (my usual, slightly healthier substitution for all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 very ripe bananas
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup canola oil (I was out of unsalted butter and had already added salt to the recipe)
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon molasses (to make up for the brown sugar I didn't have)
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a light colored bread loaf pan to set aside. Then in a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2.) In a separate bowl, mash the bananas and then add the oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, and eggs. Stir until combined but still a little lumpy (my husband begrudgingly did this part while watching anime videos on his iPad). Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and then gently stir in the chocolate chips.
3). Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf pan and bake on the top rack approximately 40-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. This was the hardest part as the top kept browning (even while on the highest rack away from the fire), but the inside was still pretty moist. After about 40 minutes I turned off the oven and let it stay warm inside for about another 10 minutes, then removed from the oven to cool.
4). Cool completely (overnight works best) and carefully remove from pan with a knife run around the edges to loosen the bread. Refrigerate if you're not serving right away (it's also easier to cut when cold) and then serve re-heated with butter for best taste.
This bread came out especially moist, sweet but not too sweet, and tasted amazing heated on the stove with my favorite butter spread. While my husband did help make it (sort of), he was the best help at eating it (I can't finish an entire loaf on my own!). We delivered some slices to my parents and brothers as well, and still had a little left to enjoy days later.
I think I have a new go-to banana bread recipe! And a new motivation to start baking again! Hope to see you soon!
