I love baking banana bread for the simple fact that I get to rescue those overripe browning bananas, which nobody wants to eat.
Baking banana bread is relatively simple and requires no fancy ingredients. Basic recipes, of course, works well for my family, as I always bake dairy-free cakes, pastry’s and bread, because of Fadhili’s milk intolerance.
I wanted to experiment with new flavours that could add a twist to the traditional banana bread. So I went out looking for a recipe that had chocolate and crunchy nut flavours. As soon as I found an appealing recipe, I went scouring through my pantry for walnuts and chocolate chips ingredients needed, but as fate would have it, I came across nuts that expired in June 2017.
Yes, I was tempted to use them since they were unopened. However, a quick search on Doctor Google stated that one could use nuts beyond their sell-by date, this would, of course, compromise the taste outcome of the bread. Interestingly, the article also had sidenote about using your nose to test whether nuts are still good enough for cooking. Rancid nuts smell like paint. The nuts from my pantry stank like 5 litres of paint. Into the dustbin, they went!
I had to look for a plan B. So I stuck with chocolate chips, which too had gone past their sell-by-date. I don’t know why I stock up on these ingredients only for them to expire before I have had a chance to put them to good use.
Luckily, it turns out that chocolate chip is hardy, if it doesn’t smell like rancid, then it is still usable. These chips tasted good, and my family has not had rumbling stomach since eating the bread.
Anyway, what started off as a banana-chocolate chip-walnut bread, ended up as a double-chocolate chip banana bread.
In line with recreating the recipe, I used half a cup of cocoa powder because I didn’t have enough chocolate chip. They do say that necessity is the mother of all invention, don’t they?
Without much ado, please find the recreated version of Melanie Makes bread recipe below.
Ingredients
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 4 overripe bananas
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. (You can use hand-held mixer or a whisking stick)
- Add eggs and vanilla, mashed bananas and mix until well combined.
- Add flour, baking soda and mix until just combined.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into greased loaf pan.
- Bake for 60 minutes. If beginning to brown too quickly, loosely tent with foil.
- Turn oven off and leave bread in the oven for additional 15 minutes.
- Allow bread to cool completely before removing from loaf pan to serve.
Notes
Follow this link for the original recipe: https://melaniemakes.com/blog/2017/09/chocolate-chip-walnut-pumpkin-bread.html
