against the grain.

i am a firm believer that chocolate does not have to be involved in everything.
that one can get by without it. you can curb a sweet-tooth without it.
that given the right ingredients, everything can be lovely and wonderful. it does not always have to include chocolate.
especially in banana bread.
if you have beautifully dark over ripe bananas, the elixir which they contain should be enough.
i have stated this over and over and over. things have enough sugar already and we should appreciate them for it.

then you encounter the rainy day.
that day where darkness hang over and the thoughts of being cozy enter your mind and then that little pest - chocolate - creeps in there too.
a day where you would like nothing more than to curl up with a mug of something hot and a warm hearty baked good.
a day where banana snack cake with a hint of chocolate peeking through hits the spot.
it's the day where i eat my words....for just this one moment.

now this is not an everyday cake. it's not meant to replace our favorite around here. it's meant to be brought out on only very special occasion.
like a rainy day.
today is such a day.

banana snack cake.
it's moments like these where i wish my kids were nut people - biting into a shard of a toasted pecan would be a welcomed surprise - a pleasant little crunch. and if you have some laying around, a dollop of softly whip cream on top wouldn't be the worst either.

preheat your oven to 350. spray a 8x8 pan with cooking spray. set aside.

if you want to add toasted pecans now is the time to toast them. you will add 1/2 a cup plus 3 tablespoons of pecan halves or broken chunks to a pie plate. put in the oven for 5 minutes. toss and check. if not browned enough, put back in for one minute increments till you are sastified - DO NOT LEAVE YOUR OVEN! you will forget about them and have to start over only to find out that was all you have. not that i am speaking from experience or anything....
once they are toasted, let cool and chop into smaller pieces - split into two bowls - 1/2 cup and 3 tablespoons.

add 2 eggs to your stand mixer or bowl and blend slightly. add 3 bananas or one cup of mush to eggs and blend slightly. add a 1/4 cup of canola oil and blend slightly. {are you following the trend here?} add 1 tsp of pure vanilla extract. blend. add in 1/2 a cup of white sugar and half a cup of brown. blend. now add in 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup all purpose flour - unbleached!!! - 1 tsp of baking soda and 1/2 a tsp salt. gently blend this in. add one cup of chocolate chips or chunks and your optional 1/2 cup of toasted pecans. once all incorporated scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula and give it a couple turns by hand just to make sure you get all the bits in there. pour into your prepared pan,  sprinkle the top with the reserved 3 tablespoons of toasted pecans and bake for 55 minutes, rotating the pan half way through. let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, remove from pan and serve either slightly warm or room temp.

will keep for 3 days in an airtight container but we all know it won't survive the night.
;)

baking: the best banana bread.

My friend over @ The Organic Experience posted about her banana bread so I thought I would follow her lead and post about mine. Big step in my world.

I used to be so protective over my recipe's - almost like they defined me and because I had created my business out of them - but that is no more!! I want to share them with everyone so we can all experience the deliciousness!!

I feel like I have to explain this recipe. This was one of my very first experiments, I was very much by the book when it came to baking. I had really just taken my first few steps into my love of scratch baking when we had a bombshell dropped into our laps - high cholesterol. And to top it off medication was not an option. So we had to go the old-fashioned way - Diet and Exercise.

We started swapping this for that and chucking things altogether - brown rice for white, brown pasta for white pasta, less processed more fresh, baked boneless skinless chicken breast in for lunch meat and.....whole wheat flour for white flour. No more sour cream. Lots more ground flax seed (ground is the only was to get the benefits of the Omega 3).

Now whole wheat flour does not work for everything 100% for 100% but for this it works beautifully!

For this recipe I swapped the flour out for whole wheat and the white sugar out for organic cane sugar. You can swap them back if you like! I also banished the chocolate chips. The loaf is sweet enough with out them! You can adjust the sugar levels as well - lowering to 3/4 cups does not change height to much, 2/3 cups does give you a shorter loaf but still quite tasty. You can also add 1/4 cup of ground flax seed into the dry ingredients.

the best banana bread

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup organic cane sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt (I like to use Kosher salt to get that occasional salt crunch but the husband complains about it to much so I do occasionally use table salt)

2 eggs, room temp & lightly beaten

3 medium to large bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan (I brush with oil).

In a large bowl combine eggs, oil and bananas and beat together.

In another bowl whisk together dry ingredients and add to wet. Beat together until just combined.

Pour into loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Let cool on wire rack for 20 mins then pop out of pan and let cool completely. You can serve slightly warm or wait if you can till cooled down! 

Freezes beautifully.