Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake
Or what to do with those overripe bananas. This recipe is great any time of year - put those brown bananas in the freezer and defrost them for this yummy cake.
Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake
From Epicurious.com
Ingredients:
This cake consists of a cake batter made of the usual things plus banana and a layer of chocolate walnut goodness that runs through the center (I also changed this from the original which suggests two layers of chocolate, one in the middle and one on top--I encourage you to do what you like).
Once your various bowls of ingredients are prepared, this cake comes together in a snap. The batter is moist and quite thick while the middle layer of chocolate, walnuts, cinnamon, butter, and sugar is as it should be. The only trick involved is getting 1/2 the batter spread as evenly as you can over the bottom of your pan and then sprinkling it over in a pleasingly generous layer followed by dolloping and then spreading the remaining batter over the top. Just take your time and all will go well:
Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake
From Epicurious.com
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened, plus 2 tablespoons, melted and cooled
- 1 cup sugar, divided
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
- 2/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 (3 1/2- to 4-ounce) bar 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup walnuts (3 ounces), toasted , cooled, and coarsely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch square cake pan.
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In another bowl, toss together chocolate, nuts, cinnamon, melted butter (2 tablespoons), and remaining 1/4 cup sugar.
- In yet another medium bowl, mash bananas and stir in yogurt and vanilla.
- In an electric mixer cream butter (1 stick) and 3/4 cup sugar.
- Beat in eggs 1 at a time until blended.
- Beat in banana mixture (it will look curdled)
- With mixer at low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.
- Use a spatula to spread half of banana batter in cake pan, covering the bottom.
- Sprinkle with chocolate mixture.
- Spread remaining batter evenly over filling.
- Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack.
This cake consists of a cake batter made of the usual things plus banana and a layer of chocolate walnut goodness that runs through the center (I also changed this from the original which suggests two layers of chocolate, one in the middle and one on top--I encourage you to do what you like).
Once your various bowls of ingredients are prepared, this cake comes together in a snap. The batter is moist and quite thick while the middle layer of chocolate, walnuts, cinnamon, butter, and sugar is as it should be. The only trick involved is getting 1/2 the batter spread as evenly as you can over the bottom of your pan and then sprinkling it over in a pleasingly generous layer followed by dolloping and then spreading the remaining batter over the top. Just take your time and all will go well:
You may see by my photos that I used chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate, I've used both kinds in the past and they work equally as well, so use what you have. Also, I used toasted pecans for this batch since when it came time for the nuts I found that's all I had. A note on the yogurt--I buy a single yogurt cup container and it's a little bit more than 2/3 of a cup but I just use the whole thing (oh and I used low-fat yogurt too).
My cake baked for about 33 minutes in total. Be careful not to under-cook this cake, which is easy to do since it is so moist. The top becomes more than golden and very well on it's way to just brown by the time it is done.
The result: I have to admit I've made this cake many times before. People who've eaten it have said it's one of the best things I've made, which I found surprising, probably because of my natural distaste for any dessert containing fruit. But even I must admit that this is good. Very good.
My cake baked for about 33 minutes in total. Be careful not to under-cook this cake, which is easy to do since it is so moist. The top becomes more than golden and very well on it's way to just brown by the time it is done.
The result: I have to admit I've made this cake many times before. People who've eaten it have said it's one of the best things I've made, which I found surprising, probably because of my natural distaste for any dessert containing fruit. But even I must admit that this is good. Very good.
# posted by Baking Fool @ 5:30 PM 
