Thursday, October 9, 2014

Molly and her Banana Bread



A lot of books are coming out with compellations of the authors recipes. When I first started reading on my kindle I found myself frequently downloading a book and realizing that it was a “recipes included” story and I would give up reading it on my kindle because I wanted to find it in hardback. This has happened with David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris, My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss, and A Homemade Life from Molly Wizenberg among many others. When I was reading A Homemade Life, I remembered really loving the recipes, as in each one I came to I said to myself “I want to make that! Tonight!” But I quickly gave the book up hoping to catch it again in hardback for my collection. 

One of my closest friends lives in the Ballard area of Seattle and I like to go up whenever I can sneak away to visit her. She is a self-described foodie. When I come up to visit she usually sends me 3 or 4 restaurant ideas and then lets me chose the winner.  On one occasion I was coming up to attend her bridal shower the next morning. Her mom was in town for the shower as well and had been reading a book by an author from Seattle who happened to have a restaurant and that is where mom wanted to eat dinner. My friend approached this delicately with me because this restaurant was a pizza restaurant and given that I currently work in a pizza restaurant I have publically vowed to not eat pizza while I work at a pizza joint because life is too short to eat that much pizza…. I thought this place sounded special though. Let’s check it out!? My friend continued to tell me that the restaurant also boasts a book of its same name and that I should check it out. Delancey. 

This same day that I was talking with my friend I ran into a neighbor and while we were talking I mentioned that I would be headed up to Seattle for the weekend. My neighbor said to me with much enthusiasm – “You must go to this restaurant I heard about, it’s called … oh shoot I forget… Oh man, the lady also has a blog, which reminds me of you… let’s see the blog is called… Orangette! Oh yes, Delancey.“ Well that’s funny, I say, because that is where we are going! 

When it rains it pours. It was funny to me how this chosen restaurant choice would lead to me reading her books and blogs and how such close influential people both brought Molly up to me and they just knew I would relate and love and cherish what she has done.

This post isn’t about my Delancey visit though because that occasion deserves its own post. But while we were at this restaurant my friend brought up that the lady who wrote Delancey is the one who wrote A Homemade Life. Why does that sound so familiar? Oh wait! I own it. I should probably read it again.
Sure enough as I started reading I came across recipe after recipe thinking to myself “I want to make this! Tonight!” So I did. Molly and I agree on the dislike for eating a banana but baking with bananas is glorious. So I purchased bananas to purposefully leave on my counter and let brown. And then I made her fabulous banana bread with chocolate and crystallized ginger. It was suggested to me to make this cake in a round instead of the traditional loaf and this made me so happy. I used a spring form pan for easy removal. 
This just might be my favorite way to make quick breads now!!

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger
Makes 1 loaf or 1 8-inch round cake
Molly Wizenberg

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups 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 crystallized ginger
2 large eggs
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup well-stirred whole-milk plain yogurt (not low or nonfat)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Set a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 350F. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan or an 8-inch round spring form pan with butter.
2. Melt the butter on the stove or in a microwave and set aside to cool slightly.
3. 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.
4. 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 spatula, scraping down the sides as needed, until just combined. Do not over mix. The batter with be thick and somewhat lumpy, just make sure all the flour has been incorporated. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
5. Bake into 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 foil.
6. Cool the bread  in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Then take bread from the spring form pan and let it cool completely before slicing. The bread freezes well wrapped in plastic wrap and again in foil to protect from freezer burn

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