comfort food

For me, baking can either be a stressful chore in which I accidentally put baking powder instead of baking soda into the flour mixture or over-knead my biscuit dough, or a relaxing and fulfilling activity in which nothing can hit the spot quite like the smell of cinnamon and bananas mingling happily together in the oven. Luckily, my experience baking banana bread yesterday afternoon leaned towards the latter description. As it has only been my second time tackling banana bread, I turned to a trusted source, Orangette, for another one of her numerous recipes for banana-based baked goods.

 

Since I had already made Molly's banana bread with semi-sweet chocolate chips, I decided to tackle another recipe. The only change I made to it was that for some reason I didn't include the cinnamon crumble topping. Maybe it was because of this omission that I found that the top of the bread browned a little too quickly. When it finally came out of the oven 55 minutes later, the top was a tad too browned but the inside of the bread was another story. Tender, moist, and delightfully light on the tongue, I found that the name "banana bread" was a bit of a misnomer. Yes, it was certainly substantial, but the inner crumb, stabbed throughout with small caramelized bits of banana, made me think that "banana cake" would be a more accurate description. Needless to say, this one will be going into my ever-expanding repertoire, and it should become a part of yours, too.  

Just thinking about that texture makes me swoon. I am so excited for breakfast.