Mark Bittman's "The Ultimate" Banana Bread

I'm pretty sure just about everyone has a favourite banana bread recipe.  My "used to be" favourite was one by Mrs. Fields of Mrs. Fields Cookies fame.  Her banana bread is studded with semi-sweet chocolate chips, which I remember thinking at the time (years and years ago) was odd, but once I tried it, there was no going back to my non-chocolate chip banana bread days.  If you've never tried chocolate chips in banana bread, you really need to.  Trust me.

Then last week, after my success with his Naan Bread, I decided to try Mark Bittman's recipe which he claims is the ultimate banana bread.  Is it the ultimate?  Well, that's impossible to say, but I can say it's very very good and I personally loved it.  I'm not a lover of nuts in my baked goods so I substituted the nuts with semi-sweet chocolate chips (what else?), and what I especially loved about this recipe was the addition of 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut.  Obviously, if you're not a coconut lover, you'll be leaving that ingredient out because yes you can taste it, although it's by no means overpowering. While Joe does like the flavour of coconut, he's not a fan of shredded coconut, and wasn't overly thrilled with the coconut in this bread.  I think he would have been quite happy without it, but I, however, am a huge coconut fan and really loved the addition of the shredded coconut. 

This bread was moist, flavourful and as Mark suggested, it's really good the next day toasted and then spread with peanut butter.  I'm just sayin'......

Whether or not it will be your ultimate banana bread is impossible for me to say.  I can say I enjoyed it very much, and it's become my new favourite banana bread.  I just need for Joe to start liking coconut a bit more so I don't have to eat the darn thing all by myself!

Enjoy!

Mark Bittman's "The Ultimate" Banana Bread
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8 tablespoons butter, plus some for greasing the pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork until smooth
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts*
1/2 grated dried unsweetened coconut (don't use sweetened)

*I omitted the nuts and added 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips instead

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

Mix together the dry ingredients. With a hand mixer, a whisk, or in the food processor, cream the butter and beat in the eggs and bananas.  Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients, just enough to combine (it's okay if there are lumps).  Gently stir in the vanilla, nuts, and coconut.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. A toothpick inserted in the center of the bread will come out fairly clean, but because of the bananas this read will remain moister than most.  Do not overcook.  Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Makes 1 loaf.

Source:  Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything

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