My go-to banana bread recipe is courtesy of Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess. Involving plump raisins that have been soaked in brandy, it’s earned me rave reviews for years.
I have a surplus of rum-soaked dates on hand and was going to substitute them for the raisins in the banana bread but then I remembered who I live with. Dried fruit is not among the items on the landlord’s “will eat” list. Back to the drawing board I went.
I perused my favorite food blogs for inspiration and immediately jumped on a recipe by Joy the Baker for peanut butter banana bread. Peanut butter and bananas being two of the landlord’s favorite food groups, it was a match made in heaven.
I followed Joy’s recipe to a T, so it’s probably best for you to go straight to the source. I will say that our oven isn’t the strongest and typically takes the full time allotted (if not a few minutes longer). However, at 55 minutes the banana bread was well done. Not yet overbaked, but it could’ve stood to come out 5 minutes sooner. For those of you who like moist-bordering-on-damp banana bread, keep that in mind. You may want to pull yours out a few minutes early.
This banana bread is not at all dense or heavy. Peanut-y mostly in its aroma, it can easily stand up to a slathering of peanut butter or nutella and a sprinkling of sea salt and not be overbearing.
Whimsical, unique, and discretely packed with whole grains, this peanut butter banana bread will satisfy sweet tooths and health nuts alike.
Now to figure out what to do with all those rum-soaked dates.
Sometimes you need a chocolate chip cookie. No way around it, it’s the only thing that’ll do. Perhaps I’m confusing “chocolate chip cookie” with “something sweet.” All I know is last week we were jonesin’ hard for chocolate chip cookies.
Every night I promised to make them after dinner. Every night the clock struck 8 and then 9 and then 10 and baking so late lost its appeal. Until finally, I outsmarted Father Time. I made the dough before dinner. Stuck it in the fridge as required and baked them after the dishes were cleared. Thus, a genius was born.
We’re not talking any old chocolate chip cookies either. We’re talking Joy the Baker’s Chewy Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies. The soft vanilla-scented dough is buttery and light, the chocolate chips dark and nostalgic. They bake up beautifully and are just as scrumptious the following day (and the day after that, should you have the will power not to eat them all in one sitting).
As per usual, I used about 3/4 of the butter and curbed the sugar a bit too. Which means I also cut back a tad on the flour so they weren’t dry, but not enough that I was simply making 3/4 of the recipe. I also used about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips rather than the full 2 cups; I don’t like my cookies overly chocolatey. Our oven tends to be slower than most, so I baked ours for closer to 12 minutes.
Joy does the recipe best, so rather than botching her perfection I’ll do you one better and simply send you to the source. These babies are unbeatable.
STEVE. SERIOUSLY. I DIDN’T USE YOUR TOOTHPASTE, OKAY? I HAVE MY OWN. IN A FLAVOR I ENJOY. I DON’T CARE WHICH WAY YOU SQUEEZE THE TUBE. THE FACT THAT...
