And on Thursday she.....baked? Yes, I made banana bread!

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      I don't normally do much baking.  But today, all the stars were aligned and I found myself in the kitchen making banana bread.  It started with today's paper and the article in the Taste section on making banana bread.  Somehow, I felt inspired.  I knew I had ripe bananas, since Nicole had put three really ripe bananas in the freezer a while ago (the exact amount I needed). I also had everything else on hand except for chocolate chips (or so I thought).  So Nicole and I made a quick trip to the grocery store for chocolate chips and I was ready to bake.....until I discovered that I only had one egg when I needed two.  Sooo, I sent Alex off to the store for eggs (it's great having a new driver in the house, they are always willing to run an errand).

     Finally, I was ready to bake!  It was a really easy recipe.  I thought it was very straight forward and came together very easily.  There were a couple of tips in the article that I thought were helpful.  The first is to toss the chocolate chips with a tablespoon of flour so that they don't sink in the batter and the other was to bake the bread at a higher temperature for the first 10 minutes.  This made the outside nice and crispy and the inside stayed nice and moist.....and it tasted really good, too!


                                                         Banana Bread
                                                     From the StarTribune

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 3 very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips, tossed with 1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Coat a 5 by 9 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.  (pan size does matter, 5 by 10 inch is fine, but 5 by 8 inch may overflow).

In a bowl of a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time, mixing until combined.

Add mashed bananas and mix well.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add to banana mixture and mix until just combined.  Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chocolate chips.

Scrape batter into a loaf pan and place in the oven.

Set timer for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top no longer looks moist and the sides are beginning to pull away from the pan.

Let sit for 5 minutes on a wire rack, then run a knife along the edges and invert loaf onto the rack to cool completely.

Slice and enjoy!!