Thursday, January 21, 2010

Eggless Chocolate Banana Bread

First of all, a very happy new year to everyone! I hope 2010 has been treating you alright so far. N is in India so you'll have to bear with my geeky posts for sometime now ;)

Things have been rather hectic over the last month and a half. But it has a lot of fun! N's sister flew in for her Christmas break. Then we also had a food-blogger friend visit us (who shall remained unnamed :P). N's friend from grad-school days also flew in. So a lot of people and tons of fun. Playing Charades, UNO, Clue, visiting the Coke Museum just to name a few. We also baked a couple of things...
OK that was a lame attempt to transition into the crux of this post but well, there is a reason why N writes the posts usually ;) I, on the other hand, asked her if Shakespere was British or American :D

I tried a banana bread when 8 hungry folks were having a ball chatting and playing games and it came out pretty well. But it wasn't eggless. We have a friend U, who always insists on eggless baking. Its not that she doesn't eat eggs. She feels a lot better if the same thing can be made eggless. After all the ravenous guests had left, I tried this banana bread on a whim and it came out super moist and very delicious. I have memorized a basic Dorie Greenspan muffin recipe and since then, I've been trying to make some breads by leaving out the eggs and throwing my own substituents in.

But honestly, I do not think that there are any real 'substituents' for eggs. I have immense respect for food bloggers who even take on Daring Baker projects and execute them superbly without eggs, but I really do think that there are no real 'substitutes' for eggs. Eggs act as binders, apart from imparting additional fat and moisture to the cake. Its the binding capabilities of the egg that makes it very unique. The addition of eggs gives the cake a certain sponginess and a texture that can't be matched otherwise. But it is certainly possible to make delectable cakes and loaves without adding eggs. At the risk of sounding immodest, here is one ;)



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Ingredients

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 c milk (i used 2% reduced fat milk)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 small to medium sized bananas, ripe
1 c sugar*
1/2 c semi sweet chocolate chips
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

* the amount of sugar really depends on how sweet the bananas are. The ones I had were not too sweet. You might want to add about 1/2-2/3 c first and then add extra if necessary.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F with a rack in the center.

2. Puree the bananas, 1/2 the sugar, vanilla and the milk in a blender or food processor. Strain out big chunks of bananas.

3. Melt the butter and the chocolate chips in a microwave or a double boiler. When everything turns into a uniform melt, add the remaining 1/2 c sugar and mix with a spatula. Let the mixture cool down for sometime until lukewarm.

4. Sift the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

5. Add the sifted dry ingredients and the banana puree alternately into the bowl containing the chocolate melt, ending with the puree. I mixed the ingredients with a spatula rather well to make sure there were no lumps, but I didn't find it necessary to beat the ingredients.

6. Pour the batter into a greased medium size loaf pan (9" X 5", 2.75" deep).

7. Bake for ~30-40 mins. If you oven has a light, use it and do not open the door until you see cracks on top of the loaf. If your oven doesn't have lights, there is no need to open it for at least 25 mins. After that, check with a skewer every 5 mins. until it comes out clean.

8. Take the loaf pan out of the oven and let the loaf cool inside the pan for about 45 mins. I placed the loaf pan on a wire rack. At the 10 minute mark, I ran a knife along the borders of the loaf.

9. Run a knife across the edges of the loaf one more time at the 30 min. mark. You could remove the loaf from the pan and eat it but N and I had some errands to run so we ended up leaving the loaf in the pan to cool down completely.



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The loaf was really moist and didn't have any 'doughy' banana spots in it. I haven't changed anything in the picture. I took simple ISO mode pics with Macro ON and under a regular tubelight/fluorescent lights with our digital camera in order to show the color of the loaf.

As a twist, you could thrown in 1/2 cups of chopped toasted pecans or walnuts. That'd be a killer combination! and as the case is with most cakes, it tastes better when eaten after a couple of hours. The flavors really develop by then. Some warm banana bread with a scoop of Vanilla ice-cream would be great too. Well, I'll let you guys figure out from here onwards ;)



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20 comments:

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow....bread looks perfect and yum.....

chef and her kitchen said...

That looks very moist...even I have this in my drafts..love to take one slice now..

Indhu said...

naicee.. I love auick breads... but somehow not a huge fan of banana bread... I could maybe substitute something for the bananas and make a chocolate chip quick bread

amna said...

u are holding down the fort nicely and doing just fine with the writing :)

the cake doesn't look like a banana one! very dark and rich colour.

Savi-Ruchi said...

i'm bowled over that last picture. This is a must try for this weekend. Thanks a lot!

Priya Suresh said...

Fantastic chocolate banana bread,looks very soft and moist..

Donna-FFW said...

Nice to see you back.. I love banana bread, and the only thing better is to add chocolate to it, fantastic loaf!! Moistness shines right through!

FH said...

Happy 2010. Banana bread looks so moist and delicious. Good one.

Parita said...

Banana choco bread has come out fab! looks very moist and delicious!

Cham said...

Tell me how is the " temporary bachelor life now" without N :)
I agree with subs- I ve seen somewhere- egg subst works like wonder when a recipe call for 1 or 2 eggs. Well I like the crack it gave on top!
Wish You a wonderful Year ahead A!

NKP said...

Looks great! Amazing that you were able to get such great consistency without eggs!

simplyfood said...

Yummy this looks delicious.

Bianca said...

Eggs are over-rated. I don't think they're necessary at all, and Ener-G egg replacer is wonderful replacement. So are flax eggs and silk tofu. Your bread looks delicious, and see? No eggs! Thanks for posting an awesome vegan recipe (that is, if you switch the milk and butter out for soymilk and soy marg...but that's an easy-peasy switch). :-)

Usha said...

Bread looks fantastic, and I love this chocolate banana combination!

Soma said...

Makes me want to grab from the screen!

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Actually, there are many bakes where eggs can be subbed quite well. The problem is when there too many eggs or in things like meringues and macarons where only eggs will do!

That said, you have done a pretty good job with that eggless bread.

Where is N, btw? Haven't heard from her so far. :)

Deeba PAB said...

Hi A...thought it was N writing, but soon figured it was 'someone else'! Cannot believe an eggless loaf can look so good! WOW...delectable indeed!!
(N...who was the blogger friend?)

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Ann said...

This cake came out so moist and delicious. I've been substituting eggs with flax seed, but I must need some other factor because my eggless cakes have been turning up quite...errrr..solid...

heather said...

I have made this recipe 4 or 5 times, once as a loaf and all other times as muffins. Everyone loves them because they are soft, moist and almost melt in the mouth. I like to add dark chocolate chips after everything is mixed and if im out of vanilla i use almond extract.