Z has been describing objects as other objects he knows for a while now. Looking at a half grape, he’ll announce, “turtle.” He calls the triangle ruler in our tool puzzle set a sailboat. I like to think he isn’t making a confused guess, that he even enjoys making these surprising connections to abstract shapes, learning about the flexible ways in which language can be used to describe things accurately but not literally. Very much a boy, he has recently been interested in all things fireman-related. Under a dimmed lamp light in a magazine I had opened by my bedside one morning, he saw this image and said “fire.”
Whole Living Magazine, November 2012 (photographer unknown)
The apple does not fall from the tree. Hearing a disconnected phrase or seeing an image is all it takes for me to kickstart new recipe ideas. After seeing an enticing food photo recently, I was very eager to make the recipe in the picture. Only later did I realize that what my brain interpreted from the image, a bread studded with gobs of chocolate chips, had very little to do with the actual recipe (the chips were actually toasted walnuts). Sometimes, confusion is a good thing and produces lovely results. In this case it created a luscious banana bread, one I’m happy to alternate with my other go-to banana bread. The cake is moist, with just enough banana to make you feel slightly less guilty about the chips.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 very ripe medium or 2 extra large ones)
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt*
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbsp unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
3 tbsp coconut oil (can substitute with grapeseed oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan with butter or oil.
Stir flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the banana, eggs, milk, butter, oil, vanilla, and walnuts.
Using a spatula, slowly add the flour mixture into the banana mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the bread for 1 hour, or until the bread is golden brown. The usual toothpick test may not work for you. In my case, the toothpick was still moist when I pulled it out after the alloted time, but the edges of the bread were brown so I took a chance and turned the oven off, covered the bread with foil completely and pulled the bread out after 5 minutes. After making this bread a few times, the toothpick test proved to be useless, although I still did it as a check. I find this bread tends to darken on the edges more quickly than I’d like, so halfway through the baking time, you can pull out the bread and cover the edges with foil. Cool the bread in the pan before inverting the bread and letting it cool further. It keeps well, covered in saran and foil for up to 5 days.
• Whole milk yoghurt can be substituted with buttermilk
Inspired from an image on Leite’s Culinaria. Recipe adapted from Baking Illustrated, America’s Test Kitchen, 2004
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