Somehow through this quarantine I have found myself with an abundance of bananas of various stages of ripeness. I’m not going to the store very often, but I am compulsively buying bananas and then no one eats them. Apparently there is a window of about 23 minutes in this house when the banana has reached it’s perfect peak of ripeness for eating and if not, the fruit basket gets overrun with black bananas.
Banana bread is the obvious choice to get rid of bunch a bananas past their prime. In researching recipes for banana bread, I came across a recipe from Joanne Chang from Flour Bakery. We had her amazing sticky buns this past summer when we were up in Boston this past summer and from the high ratings on the banana bread, this was the recipe I sought out to make.
I pretty much replicated the recipe except I had to swap a few of the ingredients that I did not have on hand. Instead of sour cream, I used some nonfat Greek yogurt. I also did not have walnuts, so pecans were a nice substitution. I also threw in some chocolate chips, because that is never a bad thing.
One step you don’t to miss is beating the sugar and eggs for the 10 minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
I also found the cooking time to be a little short. The original recipe calls for 50-60 minutes in the oven, but I found the bread needed about an hour and fifteen minutes or so a toothpick to come out clean.
Banana Bread
- 1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 3 to 4 very ripe bananas (depending on size)
- 2 tablespoons plain greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup toasted pecans
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Set oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, yogurt, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts and chocolate. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for about to 1 hour to an 1 hour and 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Moscato & Macarons 