Banana Bread with Valrhona Chocolate

So I just recently bought Molly Wizenberg’s book A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table and have been trying out her recipes. Albeit slowly, with only a few chapters a day. (It is hard to get in a lot of reading time with a 1 year old….) Her book is wonderful, not only the recipes, but the stories she tells about the recipes, just make you want to run out and cook the food she is talking about. I have already cried at least 3 times (but in a good appreciating life and love kind of way) and I am not even halfway done with the book….

The recipes that I have so far attempted are her Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Crystallized Ginger and Bouchon Au Thon (Basically tuna soufflés.)Well, not just I , but we. Jon has become the unofficial Markum family baker. I don’t like baking. I am a walking contradiction in that I am not a very good rule follower but I am also Type A. So baking does not suit me, when baking you have to follow the recipe precisely or it will not come out perfect or even close. The Type A in me can not stand for things to come out of the oven deflated and sad, undercooked/overcooked, etc. When you are cooking, you have the freedom to improvise, add a little of this, a little of that, and your dish more often then not, comes out not only edible, but even sometimes rather improved from the original version. You also have to have a lot of patience to be a good baker, a virtue I am not blessed with…. So Jon has become the baker in the family. He has a lot of patience, (He married me didn’t he?) and he is very good at making exact measurements (the cost engineer in him, I think.) He also doesn’t act too annoyed when I hover over him while he is baking, trying to make sure he is doing it right (The type A in me…) and asking annoying questions like “Are you sure you used the right amount of vanilla? Are you sure?”. So Wednesday night, he made us this banana bread (I did try to help by chopping the chocolate and not hovering too much) and it turned out delicious. I had not just one, but two slices. Make this banana bread. Better yet, have someone make it for you, it tastes sweeter that way….

This recipe is adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From My Kitchen Table. We didn’t have any crystallized ginger, so we didn’t use it. Instead of chocolate chips we used semisweet Valrhona chocolate. Valrhona chocolate is amazing, perfect for baking, and also makes excellent chocolate chip cookies. (Now I finally discovered the secret to the chocolate chip cookies they serve at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in NW Portland and can quit trekking up there all the time and just make my own, or um, more like have Jon make me some!)You see it is all about the chocolate! I strongly suggest using Valrhona if you can find it. I found it at Trader Joe’s. This bread tastes great warm or cold and can even be frozen and enjoyed at a later date. Jon enjoys a slice in the morning with a cup of coffee!

6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
¾ Cup Sugar
¾ Teaspoon Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¾ Cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips or 5 Ounces Chopped Valrhona Chocolate
2 Large Eggs
1 ½ Cups Mashed Bananas (About 3 Large Ripe Bananas)
¼ Cup Stirred Whole Milk Plain Yogurt (not low fat or nonfat)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make sure rack is positioned in the center. Grease standard size loaf pan with cooking spray or butter. In a small bowl, microwave the butter until just melted. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate and whisk well to combine. Set aside. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla and 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. Be careful not over mix. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.

Bake until the loaf is a deep golden brown, about 50 minutes to an hour. Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack and then tip it out of the pan onto the rack. Cool completely before slicing. If freezing, Molly suggests to wrap in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil to keep out frost!

Note: Don't be afraid to add more chocolate! It depends how sweet you want it but on average I always add a another handful of chopped chocolate or chips!

Sofia enjoying a slice!