Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

This is what B really wanted for his birthday.  He loves bread pudding and he loves chocolate, and he’s been begging for this recipe since the cookbook arrived.  After our dinner of cake, bread pudding with whipped cream and chocolate sauce made the perfect late night snack.

The recipe takes some planning, as it has o soak for 8-24 hours, but it was delicious.  Light and fluffy chocolate, with chunks of banana make a great contrast.  I’m sure I’ll be making this again.

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding, from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.  Pg 254

banana chocolate chip pancakes

If there’s one thing I learned during my stint in the Junior League (you didn’t know that about me, didja?), it’s how to crash fancy balls it’s that you only need to change 3 ingredients before you can call a recipe your own and publish it in a charity cookbook so that you can have more fancy balls you can support your surprisingly impressive philanthropic efforts.  I ended up tweaking the recipe even more than that, but I still must give credit where credit is due and mention that the starting point was Ken Haedrrich’s Blueberry Banana pancakes.

The batter is very thick, an although as a general rule I don’t love thick pancakes, they are necessary for chocolate chip pancakes or else the chocolate makes a mess and everything falls apart.  If you want to try them a little thinner, add more milk.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Mix the flour, baking pwder, cinnamon, and sugar in a large bowl.  In another bowl, mash up the bananas really well, and then mix in the yogurt, milk, and eggs.  You can also do this in a cuisinart to simplify things.  Whisk until it’s a consistent liquid.  Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until just blended.  Add the butter, and mix.  Gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Cook on a griddle over medium heat.  Since they’re thick, you’ll want to cook them fairly slowly.

Banana-Nut Bread

I think two loaves of banana bread in as many weeks should be taken as a sign that my kids ae slowing down their tremendous banana consumption.  We didn’t have enough eggs for the Flour recipe I made last week, so I went for this recipe.

It’s okay.  Not great.  Passable.  A little bit dry, and the flavor is too subtle.  It’s not bad… it’s just not great.

Banana-Nut Bread, from  Williams-Sonoma’s Bread.  Pg 80.

Baked Bananas

Made as part of Christmas Eve  breakfast.  I wanted to do something fun with the fruit, and this fit the bill.  Bobs was scared of it, but Bibs went for thirds.  Delicious!

Baked Bananas, Good Mornings: Great Breakfasts and Brunches for Starting the Day Right, by Michael McLaughlin.  pg 67.

Flour’s Famous Banana Bread

Some forgotten bananas led to this recipe, and I’ve never been so thankful for forgotten bananas.  This was, bar none, the most amazing thing I’ve eaten recently.  It’s ridiculously moist, and has a really deep flavor.  I’d make it again, and again, and again.

Flour’s Famous Banana Bread.  Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.  Pg 66