Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins

Today I bring you a tale of two loaf pans and the accidental discovery of our new favorite snack.  A few years ago when I was on a mission to find the world's best banana bread I was cooking both at my own house and the house of my beloved.  We both owned loaf pans.

Banana Bread

Banana bread has two extremes.  It can get goody-two shoes with no sugar, no fat, and a good helping of fiber.  Or you can pump all the sugar and grease you can get your hands on to make a sickeningly sweet treat.  When I went searching for a go-to banana bread recipe, I wanted middle ground.  I wanted something soft but not too cakey.  It was a bit of a search to find the right one.  Looking at banana bread recipes is like looking at chocolate chip cookie recipes.  They all have the same ingredients and there's no way to tell a good one from a bad one.  One weekend afternoon last winter I was burrowed in during a snow storm with a supply of ripe bananas and decided to whip up a random recipe that showed up on my Pinterest feed.  The rest is history.

Ingredients

(Recipe from the Food Network)

• 3 ½ overripe bananas
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup canola oil
• 1 ⅔ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt

 Method

The journey begins with four very ripe bananas. The riper the banana gets, the sweeter it is.  There's a lot of timing involved.  I can't speak for other single people, but it's a pretty rare event for me to end up with four overly ripe bananas on my hands at one time, and in the rare case that this might happen, what are the odds that I'm going to have the time and desire to bake?

The secret is your freezer.  Just stockpile the ripeys until you end up with enough bananas and a craving.  Because I don't buy bananas very often, I have a banana pact with my special someone who has a steady supply. Instead of throwing his overripe bananas in the garbage, he throws them in the freezer, and we both get banana bread.

If you're working with frozen bananas, you may want to pull them out of the freezer and let them thaw for a bit so that they're easier to peel and you don't freeze your hands in the process.  Frozen bananas get very squishy when thawed.  It's a little off-putting, but rest assured that once they're baked, a frozen squishy overripe banana = a fresh overripe banana.

For the mixing, I like to use a blender to make sure that the banana gets fully dispersed, but you can use any tool that you want.  Start with the sugar and eggs.  The original recipe says to do this for 10 minutes, which had me shaking my head and asking why.  A few spins in the blender did the trick.  

Add the bananas, vanilla, sour cream, and mix to combine.  Follow up with the oil and give everything a final blend.

Toss the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and stir together.

Whisk in the banana mixture, just until combined.  Do not overmix.

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and pour the batter in.

Bake until the bread passes the toothpick test.  The original recipe says 45 minutes to an hour.  I've had it take up to an hour and 15 minutes.

Let it cool on a wire rack for a few minutes.

Turn it upside down to release the bread from the pan.

Butter generously and eat.

Simple Guacamole

Back in the day, I had a friend who made legendary guacamole.  Her recipe: three avocados and one packet of guacamole mix.  It was fabulous.  The only problem was that I was never motivated enough to figure out how to divide the packet of guac mix to make a batch with anything less than three avocados, so I never made it except for special occasions.

On the other end of the spectrum was time another friend and I scoured the internet for the perfect guac recipe.  Our ultimate selection was "authentic": avocados, onions, tomatoes, garlic, salsa, jalapenos, cilantro, limes...we sliced and diced.  When we were done, I grabbed a tortilla chip and sampled the fruits of our labor.  It was OK.  I figured it would be better after the flavors had a chance to meld...but as the evening wore on, there was no change.  It didn't taste bad, it just tasted like something that didn't have a lot of avocado in it, which is kind of a deal breaker for guac.

So the quest for a go-to guac recipe was stalled until a special someone, who claims that he doesn't like to cook, invited me over for a home cooked meal.  I saw an avocado, onion powder, salt, cilantro, and a sprinkle of lime juice come together in a flash.  The result was pure avocado bliss.

Everything about this recipe is flexible and easy going.  The only required ingredient is the avocado.  Lime juice is nice but not essential.  Cilantro is divine but can be skipped in a pinch.  The quantity can be scaled as needed: for a party, I'll use three avocados.  If I'm solo, anywhere between ½ to one avocado.  You can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

• avocado
• onion powder
• salt
• cilantro
• lime
  

Method:

Dice up some cilantro, as much as you want.  For a batch of three avocados, about ¼ cup.  If you're making guac for one, it just takes a few leaves. 

Cut the avocados in half.

Gently squeeze the avocado out of its shell.

Take a step back to admire the green goodness.

Add in the cilantro and sprinkle with onion powder and salt.  Mash it all together, with the goal of mixing and softening, but don't liquefy the avocados.  Taste and adjust seasonings. 

Squeeze in some lime juice, quantity to taste.  Give it a final mash or stir.

And enjoy.

Chex Mix

There are thousands of recipes out there for "original" chex mix, and I've made a few of them.  Here's my version, not "original" but it gets eaten up pretty quickly every time I make it.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons Worcester sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon celery salt
• ½ teaspoon seasoned salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground sage
• Tabasco to taste
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 9 cups chex cereal
• 1 cup mixed nuts
• 1 cup pretzels
• 1 cup rye chips

 Method

Begin the hard, tedious work of measuring out all the seasoning.

And then continue on with the drudgery of assembling the dry ingredients.  Start heating the oven to 250° F.

I use a combination of rice and corn chex.

Add a cup of nuts, a cup of rye chips, and cup of pretzels...a cup of any other nibblie you have lying around the kitchen.  Put in a bowl with a lid.

Now it's time to prepare the sauce.  Put a stick of butter in a bowl and head for the microwave.

Add the Worcester, seasonings, and a few dashes of Tabasco.

Mix it all together.

 

Pour the sauce over the chex.  Cover the bowl and shake vigorously.

 Pour the chex into a 9" x 13" baking dish.

Bake one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Place the mix on paper towels to catch any excess sauce.  You know this isn't a calorie saving thing, it's a preventing excess grease thing.

And don't eat it all in one sitting!