Banana Bread Love & Edible Memories

A couple of years ago I was reading a food blog called Orangette written by Molly Wizenberg. I was especially enjoying the author's stories of opening a New York style pizza restaurant called Delancy. The pizza looked so good and I kept wishing I could visit but was certain it was located far away from Seattle. The very next day I was on a run on the back side of Phinney Ridge, when to my happy surprise I ran by Delancy! I was so excited that the pizza I had been dreaming about was not only in Seattle but on the same street as my house! It took another year before my best foodie friend Jill and I made it back to give it a try. Despite the fact that I had a new baby with me Jill and I managed to endure the long wait, but let me tell you it was definitely worth it. It was the BEST PIZZA I've ever had. I had the crimini pizza which is loaded with fresh sliced criminis, mozzarella and thyme. Since then I've taken my hesitant husband there and even though he didn't believe any pizza was worth waiting an hour and a half for he is a convert now.

Since discovering Delancy I've been wanting to read Molly Wizenberg's book A Homemade Life. Last month when I was visiting Jill in Port Angeles I noticed it on her shelf. She was kind enough to lend it to me and I've been loving every chapter. It's a memoir told through her connections to food with each chapter ending with the recipe connected to the story. Almost every chapter has made me either laugh or cry and then want to make the recipe. So far I've enjoyed making Burg's potato salad and most recently Banana Bread with crystalized ginger and chocolate. The combination of crystalized ginger and chocolate chunks has elevated this banana bread to a new level.

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystalized Ginger

6 tablespoon (3 ounces) unsalted butter

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup finely chopped crystalized ginger

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (from about 3 large ripe bananas)

1/4 cup well-stirred whole-milk plain yogurt (not low fat or nonfat)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Set a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a standard-sized (about 9 by 5 inches) loaf pan with cooking spray or butter.

In a small bowl, microwave the butter until just melted. (Take care to do this on medium power and in short bursts; if the heat is too hight, butter will sometimes splatter or explode. Or alternatively, put the butter in a heatproof bowl and melt in the preheated oven.) Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips and crystallized ginger and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well. Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a rubber spatial, scraping down the sides as needed, until just combined. Do not over mix. The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy, but there should be no unincorporated flour. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top.

Bake until the loaf is a deep shade of golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 minutes to an hour. If the loaf seems to be browning too quickly, tent with aluminum foil.

Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Then tip it out onto the rack and let it cool completely before slicing- unless you absolutely can't help yourself, in which case, dig in.

Stay sweet,

xx

Alisa

I love to bake, and like the local author mentioned in Alisa's entry, I especially treasure the recipes passed down from loved ones. My mom's Butter Dips (possibly Maimie Eisenhower's recipe); Danish Puff, the Christmas treat I loved as a child, and later discovered that my sister-in-law Patti's Yugoslavian aunt Dobrilla passed off as an "old country" specialty; Aunt Virginia's Graham Cracker Cake, and Barbara Bowers' Annie Wright Seminary Cake. Those wonderful ladies are gone, but the memories and the calories live on.

When our boys were growing up, the cookie jar was always full of home-made cookies (a rarity nowadays), and I baked for any occasion. Rodent-shaped cake to celebrate Ground Hog's Day? Oink, yeah! Sister-in-law Patti and I even took a Wilton cake decorating class together. She got her diploma. I flunked.

In addition to my academic decorating disgrace, I had another humiliating failure: I simply couldn't make banana bread, and I finally gave up trying. My failures were variations on the themes of overdone on the outside and gooey, icky on the inside.

After decades of banana bread disaster, I saw a recipe in the Everett Herald that made me want to get back on the banana bread horse. I was looking for a moist, fruity cake recipe that would work well as a grooms' cake, made in advance and packed in tiny boxes.

Of course I couldn't let well enough alone with the recipe (which may have been the reason for my previous banana bread failures), but I tinkered a little bit, and came up with a success, and passed the recipe on to my friends Linda, Sandie and Susan who all lovingly baked, boxed and beribboned:

GROOMS' CAKE FOR CHRIS & ALISA'S WEDDING

In mixer bowl, beat together:

1/2 cup softened butter

2 peeled very ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups sugar

Add in and mix:

1 cup unflavored yogurt

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Add and mix till just combined:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Grease and flour the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan, bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding (just a little rain), a beautiful bride and groom, with treasured memories of all the family and friends who helped make the day happen. Who knew alisa's mom could channel corsage design and execution so masterfully? Who knew Alisa's grandma was so wise? She took me aside before the ceremony and advised, "I'd suggest you have a drink right now," and we shared a nip, which helped immensely. Of course we all knew Alisa's Aunt Mary, the caterer would perform deliciously with grace under pressure, which sounds like a Victorian recipe for squab, but I'm remembering the blown electrical circuits and the lack of plugs for things like 60 cup coffee makers, etc.

While the Grooms' Cake is banana based, it's definitely more cake than bread, and it took another decade for me to find a banana bread recipe I could succeed with. But again, the tinkering! I took the basic Better Homes and Gardens cookbook recipe for banana bread and came up with:

MY SUCCESSFUL BANANA BREAD

In the bowl of an electric mixer, smash up 2 very ripe, medium sized, peeled bananas. Measure and retain only 1 cup of banana in the bowl. Toss all the rest of the ingredients on top of the smushed bananas and mix well:

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup softened butter

2 tablespoons milk

2 eggs

pinch nutmeg

Line the bottom of a bread pan with baking paper, bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes. A little more tinkering and I bet we could reduce the fat content way down, but for now I'm resting on the triumph of a moist, perfecto cooked, golden loaf of banana bread goodness.

FORENSICS: Why did I fail at banana bread for so many years? Here are some likely factors:

*imprecise measurement of dry ingredients

*failure to measure bananas

*leavening agents that had lost their mojo

*dumb cookware (when all else fails, blame the tools---but seriously, I have better results with my metal pans than the Pyrex, no doubt a temperature issue)

*incorrect oven temperature (see dumb cookware above)

*tinkering

A precious friend once gave to me

a most delightful recipe.

Each time it's used, I feel I spend

a precious moment with my friend.---author unknown

Celebrating the seasons with you!---Karin