Just as I convinced myself that baking wasn’t “my thing”, baking, sure enough, is becoming… my thing. There’s something about it that I’ve found to be a bit soothing. Just watching my mixer spin around, getting my hands sticky with flour and butter, and the sweet smells that flow out of my oven. It slows life down a bit and after being around people all day, I was in the mood to bake in silence this afternoon. Just me and the sounds in my kitchen. I’m finding it’s the perfect way to unwind – and probably expand my waistline, tee hee hee. 
I decided to raid the pantry and fridge to see what I could put together. I saw I had a few pretty decently ripened bananas and immediately thought of banana bread. Because who doesn’t love a loaf of banana bread starring at them every time they enter the kitchen? Exactly. I didn’t want to do just a plain old banana bread so I did a search for a Chocolate Chip Banana Bread and found a simple but tasty sounding recipe from Epicurious.
Here’s what you need:
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped (I left these out)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Here’s what you do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9x5x2 1/2-inch metal loaf pan.
• Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl to blend.
• Combine chocolate chips (and walnuts, if using) in a small bowl; add 1 tablespoon flour mixture and toss to coat.
• In an electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until well blended.
• Beat eggs in 1 at a time.
• Add mashed bananas, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.
• Beat in flour mixture. (I wanted to stick my face in the mixer at this point. Mmmm, vanilla. Mmm, bananas!)
• Pour about 1/3 of the batter into the loaf pan. Sprinkle with half of the chocolate chip (and walnut) mixture. Pour an additional 1/3 of batter over. Sprinkle with remaining chip/nut mixture and top with remaining batter.
• Bake bread until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about an hour. Turn out on to rack and let cool.
I’m 100% positive that this is breakfast tomorrow. Maybe just one slice. Maybe the whole loaf. We will just wait and see.
What’s your favorite thing to bake? Would looooove for you to share your favorite recipes in the comments section!
[Chels]
 |
I like to bake cookies because I feel like I mess up other things a lot, but I have a good handle on cookies. I made a good banana bread once! Choco chip too
i love the tip of coating chips with flour, so they don’t all sink to the bottom of the pan! this looks delish. cannot wait until it cools off here, so i can get to baking again!
(it’s a hobby that is quite dangerous for the waistline)
baking is now “YOUR THING”
mmm and the texture looks really soft <3 SO LOVELY!
i pretty much “ran” over here as soon as i saw what the post title said- i mean seriously, banana bread with chocolate chips- who wouldnt get a little giddy
ps. just voted for your PFB # 2 entry <3 good luck girls!
oh goodness. I love baking – it is total stress relief for me. I actually really enjoy quick breads. Some of my favorites:
http://itzyskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/05/baok-farmers-market-and-homemade-vegan.html
http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_wheat_bread
http://itzyskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/04/brown-bread-and-french-fry-substitute.html
yum looks great, glad you are warming up to baking now!
I just made mini banana muffins for our recent food blogger trip to Vermont and it took a lot of self restraint to not put chocolate chips in it. Actually, I didn’t have any mini chocolate chips on hand and I was too lazy to go get some! My favorite thing to bake is pumpkin bread! I recently posted a recipe use agave nectar instead of sugar.
Yum! I make a banana bread with a chocolate swirl (recipe: http://sweetersalt.com/2010/08/11/chocolate-swirl-banana-bread/). So good, but really dangerous!
Laura
I love making banana bread and banana muffins and peanut butter cookies! Lately I have been obsessed with no-flour PB cookies – 1 cup PB, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup white sugar, 1 egg, 2 tbs vanilla extract, and orange zest. Then I top it with dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt
http://www.confessionsofachocoholic.com/chocolate/miracle-cookie-aka-the-amateur-gourmets-peanut-butter-cookie-of-your-dreams
LOVE this combo. My college roomate’s mom used to send us banana bread with chocolate chips and we would devour it instantly. This week I made pumpkin popovers and savory biscotti. Who knew both were so easy?!http://www.wearenotmartha.com/2010/09/chocolate-chip-banana-bread/#
http://www.acambridgestory.com
A few slices of this with peanut butter and you’ve got the perfect breakfast!
I loooove banana bread! I recently made Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins – the recipe’s on my blog. Absolutely delicious!
i’m glad you like baking now! this sounds delicious, i bought some bananas the other day to make banana bread and i’m just waiting for them to ripen, i might have to make this yummy recipe!
why areyou doing this to me!?!?!
that looks amazing!
i havnet attempted this yet but i really wanna make monkey bread…. gooey sticky sweet monkey bread!
yum! i LOVE the smell of freshly baked banana bread. and the addition of chocolate chips sounds wonderful
I confess, I skimmed this post because I was drooling as I stared at the pictures. GAH, must have some immediately!
Mmm! My favorite thing to bake is cupcakes. Of all kinds. And I’m on a chocolate kick lately (sometimes I go into phases where all I want is fruity or light non-chocolate desserts). I made chocolate cupcakes recently with wasabi, ginger, and black sesame seeds and they were ridiculously good!
ohhh keep baking – great recipes! i have been on a huge apple pie baking kick lately. oh, and better than crack brownies. yum.
I love to bake, much more than cook. choc chip banana bread sounds great but my fav is apple banana bread (we made it for SMS)
I love putting chocolate chips in banana bread! I can’t narrow down to one thing I love baking, but I posted a pumpkin chocolate chip cake today that I was really happy with. I pretty much love baking anything though!
i love love love banana bread (and banana cake w/ cream cheese icing). i have it for my birthday every year. it’s my grandmother’s recipe and it’s amazing!
i also love to bake homemade bread. it’s easier than it sounds…i promise. actually just blogged about it the other day http://blog.nelsonbridge.com/2010/09/draperies-a-look-inside-the-nelson-bridge-workroom/
haha sorry! here it is http://cailenascher.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-win-friends-influence-people.html
what a great good looking loaf of bread! I love baking breads, despite the fact I’m not good at it, I can only get one recipe right, we still haven’t posted on our blog, but we’re woking on it.
Have a great day ladies!
Priscilla
I basically am the opposite of you….meaning I LOVE to bake and become a little anxious when I have to cook a new recipe. I fear messing up the cooking (unless it is of course my own creation!). Banana bread is a staple in my kitchen at least one week out of the month. Every dinner party requires me to bake some sort of cake from scratch, and my favorites are Hershey’s chocolate cake and frosting and an orange cake with orange cream cheese frosting and blueberries. Recently I baked an almond tart cake of Spanish decent with a raspberry amaretto sauce that was delicious! Challenges are good so you keep up the baking and I will keep up the cooking!!!
Banana bread is one of my favorite things in the whole world, throw chocolate chips in the mix and it’s heaven. Baking is the opposite of my thing- I’d love to try to make something from scratch one day and not a box. Note I said, ‘something’ and that I’ve never ever done it before…
Baking is total comfort for me. I’m so in my element while I’m doing it. i love the combination of chocolate and banana. Classically delicious!
This looks so good! I’m actually a big fan of baking chocolate chip cookies. they’re my favorite to eat – so they’re also my favorite to bake!
Yum! Chocolate chips would be perfect addition to my standard banana bread recipe: http://www.lanascooking.com/2009/11/05/banana-nut-bread/
Some other favorites are:
–Blueberry Lemon Muffins: http://www.lanascooking.com/2010/07/20/blueberry-lemon-muffins-2/
–Never Fail Pound Cake: http://www.lanascooking.com/2009/03/15/never-fail-pound-cake-with-warm-berry-compote/
–Outrageous Chocolate Cookies: http://www.lanascooking.com/2009/02/14/outrageous-chocolate-cookies/
–Texas Sheet Cake: http://www.lanascooking.com/2009/10/23/texas-sheet-cake/
Baking is definitely my outlet. After a rough day at work, I love to bake. I love pumpkin and chocolate.