I don’t know about you, but I’m having trouble finding good fruit this season. Sure, I can stick to citrus fruits, but I’m finding that when I branch out from there, I’m usually pretty disappointed with my selection.
I picked up a little tote bag of what I thought was a decent bunch of apples the other day. When I got home, I found that the bottom was soaking wet and as I cleaned the rotten ones that fell off of my recently washed floor (while my children commented how gross they were), I resolved no more apples for a while.
Next, I moved on to bananas. If I ate them quickly enough, they were okay. But there are only so many bananas a person can eat in a day and too many of them turned brown. In my world, brown bananas only means one thing—it’s time for banana bread.
Years ago, after reading a wave of Maeve Binchy books, I became a bit obsessed with quick breads. The idea of having the perfect bread available on a moment’s notice for an unexpected guest appealed to me. I scoured my cookbooks and the internet for different recipes, picked the things I liked most in all of them, and began combining. I settled on the banana bread recipe that follows. It’s lower fat than most without sacrificing on taste. This bread makes a great hostess gift and goes perfectly with a good cup of coffee.
I hope you are having more success with fruit this year than I am. If not, I think that this should count towards the fruit and vegetable category. It’s better than ketchup, right?
Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
2-3 ripe medium bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (more if you’d like, omit if you don’t)
1/2 to 3/4 cup walnuts (optional)
Preheat convection oven to 350 degrees*. Grease a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan (I prefer silicone because it pops right out.) Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well. Transfer to prepared loaf pan. Bake until top is golden brown and splits slightly—about 1 hour.
*If you choose to use a regular oven instead of convection, bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
This can also be made into muffins or muffin tops. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.
