Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Who doesn't like banana bread? People who don't like bananas I guess. It's a pretty ubiquitous quick bread, available in most coffee and tea shops. I took this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction website, but I'm baking at a cottage with a few limitations...no mixer, other than myself, and an oven with which I am unfamiliar. So, it is what it is.

I have included here for your viewing pleasure a link to an iconic banana interview from 2013 with Muneori Kawasaki, a Blue Jays infielder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGai72Tt8Y

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs (mine were absolutely mammoth, with double yolks)
• 1.5 cups of mashed bananas
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

Combine the flour. baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. In a second bowl combine the butter, sugar, eggs, bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Like I said, I didn't have an electric mixer, so I just used a spatula to mix the dry ingredients with the wet. Finally, fold the chocolate chips into the mixed batter.

I oiled and floured a loaf pan to try to make it less stickable, then spooned in the batter and hoped for the best. The cake baked for 65 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick or knife blade to ensure the batter is fully baked.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding....using up the heels of bread in the time of corona virus

This post taken from my previous blog was originally directed to my friend Christine who is a bread pudding aficionado, and would apparently eat an entire pudding at one go if given the opportunity.....

Bread pudding is a great thing to bake in the time of corona virus since it uses up stale bread and doesn't require a lot of ingredients. This recipe is a bit fancy because of the addition of chocolate chips. I happened to have some left over challah, which has a great consistency for soaking up liquid. Ideally, the pudding should be served warm, shortly after it's taken from the oven, to optimize gooey chocolatey goodness. 

Ingredients:

• 100 g. chocolate chips ( I used about a cup or perhaps slightly less)
• about 4 cups ( 250 g.) of stale white bread broken into 3 cm cubes
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream (I didn't have any so omitted this ingredient)
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/5 cup  (40 g) of brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of dark rum
• 4 teaspoons of demerara sugar for the top of the pudding (I used a lesser amount of ordinary granulated sugar)

Methods: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a medium-sized baking dish and throw in the bread. Scatter the chocolate chips evenly among the pieces of bread. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, rum and brown sugar, then pour the liquid mixture over the bread. Press the bread into the liquid with a fork and allow it to soak for wait 15-20 minutes before sprinkling the top with the sugar and popping the whole thing in the oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the top is nicely browned. Serve warmly gooey.

Hard Sauce

Serve this sauce with warm bread pudding or Christmas pudding or anything your little heart desires.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1 and 1/2 cups of sifted icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons rum or brandy

Methods:
Cream the butter with the icing sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the rum or brandy. Place a generous dollop on top of warm pudding and get happy and fat.

Skillet Cookies

This recipe was torn out of a magazine some decades ago so I can't attribute it to anyone/any publication in particular. It's another sweet that I tend to make at Christmas. The name is somewhat misleading. The ingredients are cooked in a skillet, but the end product is not a cookie at all. It is, instead, a sweet buttery ball. Absolutely delicious.

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp.
• salt
• 1 cup of pitted chopped dates
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs well beaten
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 4 cups rice krispies 
• 3 cups shredded coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Methods:

Cook butter, salt, sugar and dates in a skillet over a low heat until pasty. The following photograph indicates what this mixture will look like.

Remove the skillet from the heat and allow the mixture to cool somewhat, being careful not to scramble the eggs, then add the vanilla, eggs and milk. Mix well. 

Return the mixture to a low heat and cook for another 2 minutes. Cool a little, then add the cereal and nuts.

After the mixture has cooled sufficiently to be handled, form 1 inch balls and roll them in coconut. This is a messy process but can be done. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. 

Walnut Rum Balls

My sister Sylvia's recipe for walnut rum balls inspired me to concoct my own recipe for these shiny globes of chocolatey booziness. 

Ingredients:

• 125 grams of finely chopped walnuts, divided into 2 parts
• 400 gram box of Oreo baking crumbs
• 1/2 cup of grape jelly (mine happened to be homemade wild grape jelly, but I'm not bragging or anything)
• 1/3 cup of dark rum

Methods:
Place the cookie crumbs and 1/2 of the ground walnuts in a medium-sized mixing bowl, then stir in the rum and grape jelly. Combine the ingredients thoroughly. Chill the mixture until firm, then roll it into small balls and finally, roll the balls in the remaining ground walnuts. Refrigerate or freeze until use.