i love a quick bread. what baker hates on a quick bread? i like quick breads because like the morning friendly muffin, you can quite reasonably eat a slice for breakfast…yeah! also, surprise! they come together quickly and often with a single bowl. amazing.

banana bread is one of those quick breads that we’ve all encountered and it seems to be one of those things that is best made by someone’s mother/aunt/grandmother. my mother is not a baker, the woman considers no-bake cookies a dreadful task. no. bake… so she sure was not pulling golden loaves of banana-goodness from the oven on the weekends. my mom is more apt to devour a steak dinner in the AM, rather than a dainty slice or muffin. that said, i have no favorite banana bread like so many of you probably do. so, i devised my own with a few delightful additions.

i did a quick search for banana breads and was led to simply recipes, which is a pretty amazing source for recipes. i added bourbon (like i saw on the ever wonderful smitten kitchen), chopped chocolate and pecans, and a few grates of nutmeg. i used organic cane sugar this time (you don’t have to i just have a massive bag) and also reduced the amount to 3/4 cup.

sean really enjoyed the bread, he said it was, “um, so awesome. i liked the bits of chocolate and tasty nuts.”

tasty nuts…haha.

sorry. he actually used those words, i can’t help myself ;)

banana bread with chocolate chunks and pecans
adapted from simply recipes. i used 3 paper loaf forms, which i reduced the baking time to 40 minutes. if you use a single loaf pan the baking time is 1 hour.

3-4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg of the freshly grated variety
pinch salt
1/3 cup chopped chocolate, i used valrhona
1/2 cup chopped pecans

preheat oven to 350 F.

in a large bowl mix butter into banana with a wooden spoon. mix in sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, incorporate well. sprinkle baking soda over the top of the mixture along with salt, mix. fold in flour. fold in nuts and chocolate. pour into buttered pan (4 x 8 in loaf) and bake for 1 hour. cool on a wire rack. remove from pan to slice.