A sweeter side to breakfast

We all have those mornings that could use a little extra sugar. You're in a tizzy, running late searching for your keys and have no time to make a healthy breakfast. Your roommates left so many dishes around the sink you can't imagine sifting through them to find anything. Or maybe there's an upcoming tedious meeting that you are prone to dozing through. 

This bread cures it all.

I was engulfed by the slew of books in Strand this past weekend and completely overwhelmed with the plethora of cookbooks. Finally, I decided to get a book on breads, since that is the most uncharted territory for me. I settled on Bread: 150 Traditional Recipes from Around the World by Gail Duff. This recipe is adapted from the basic banana bread recipe in the West Indies region of all places. The original recipe doesn't call for the chocolate, but it felt necessary.

For those who haven't made banana bread yet and are still in that sad state of mind that considers brown bananas a bad thing, a short tutorial is in order:

perfect for eating

perfect for baking

I know they don't look particularly edible, but trust me the flavor of a ripe banana is much more rich and the texture is perfect for smooshing into a batter.

Banana Bread 

1/2 C. unsalted butter
1/2 C. sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 C. plain cake flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp ground. nutmeg
3 ripe bananas
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1oz. dark chocolate baking squares, chopped
2 oz. walnuts, chopped

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, gradually beat in the egg
• Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg
• Peel and mash the bananas
• Beat the flour and bananas alternately into the butter and sugar, beating and blending well
• Mix in the vanilla extract and 1 oz. of the chocolate pieces
• Place batter into greased loaf pan top with walnuts and remaining chocolate
• Bake for about 50 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean

It's best served warm, but if you make it late one night, its a great reason to roll out of bed in the morning. I sliced it up along with some zucchini bread and had to find some way to force myself to not eat the entire loaf, so I brought the bowl to some hungry graduate students across the hall from my lab who kindly devoured it.

So please, the next time you consider throwing away the bananas that you ran out of time to eat, realize that they just have a much higher calling than simply being sliced with your cheerios, and make banana bread instead!