White Chocolate Orange Banana Bread

Whew - long title. But it's got a lot in it. Including walnuts, but I left that part out of the title. This is based off of "The Best Banana Bread You'll Ever Have" from A Cup of Jo, which I had found on Pinterest. Which I followed more closely in this post. However, I had a couple bananas about to spoil, and an orange I was being finicky about eating, and thought I'd just experiment a little bit. It came out fairly well, though was quite a bit more moist. The white chocolate chips seem to melt into the batter mroeso than chocolate ones, which is not so great. Changes (full recipe at end of post):

• Two bananas, one orange (zested orange and saved for later, peeled orange and put it in the blender
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp vanilla (in place of lemon juice)
• 3 Tbsp rum (in place of bourbon)
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 325 F for 60 minutes

Creaming the sugar and butter, one of my favorite things :)

All the liquidy things.

Everything! You can see little bits of orange.

Ready to go - so I made the center not as high to make to top flatter.

...which was okay, and it worked, but doesn't look as good without the peak in the middle :)

See how the white chocolate kind of melted in?

Good stuff !

Here is my version of the recipe (which we will now call White Chocolate Orange Banana Bread, haha):

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 orange, peeled and blended
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons rum
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1 cup (6 ounces) white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 F (for dark pan, 350 F for light pan or glass) and prepare loaf pan - I use the cooking spray with flour in it, otherwise grease and flour.
2. To prepare orange, zest (you can save this for other things, or add to the batter), peel, and puree in blender or food processor.
3. Mix dry ingredients in medium small bowl.
4. Cream butter and sugar in a medium bowl until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly after each. Add the rest of the liquid ingredients (including banana and orange) and mix well.
5. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients, stir until just blended. Add walnuts and white chocolate, stir until they are distributed.
6. Pour batter into loaf pan, place in oven and back for 60 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool, enjoy, and save in plastic wrap.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I greatly enjoy Pinterest, like many girls out there. It's pretty fabulous. It's also a fabulous way to waste time, haha. Anyways, not that point. The point is, I've made a few items I've found on Pinterest, and last week I made this!

The Best Banana Bread You'll Ever Have - A Cup of Jo

Well, I came upon this, and it was perfect because I had two rotting bananas I needed to deal with. I ended up modifying the recipe a little:

1. Only 2 bananas - though the volume seemed to be about right
2. I used vanilla instead of lemon juice (and doubled it to make up for the potential lack of moisture from the bananas)
3. Don't like bourbon, but I had rum on hand
4. No walnuts, as I was expecting a nut-allergic guest I was hoping to share some with
5. I had a dark non-stick pan, so I lowered the temperature to 325 F and ended up baking for 50 min.

At first I though it was too dry, but once it cooled I wrapped it up in plastic wrap, and the next day it was perfect. Not so great out of the oven. I used some Ghirardelli 72% dark chocolate chips, and they were a bit overpowering. I almost used white chocolate chips, and I think I will do that next time to let the banana flavor stand out a bit more.

My photos...