Banana Pear Nutella Bread

Why can't I find a good bunch of bananas in New York City? They often come in plastic bags and turn from hard-as-a-rock green to peel-splitting ripe in no time flat. I assume NY bananas come from the same (very distant) land as my LA bananas, right? I've tried switching to pears and apples for my daily mid-morning snack, but they're messy and not nearly as filling.

The upside to a fruit bowl full of overripe bananas, however, is banana bread. Last Saturday, I was also craving chocolate and remembered my friend Emily making a delightful Orangette banana-chocolate concoction last summer. Well, I had no chocolate in the cupboard, but I did have Nutella. I also had an overripe pear--the more, the merrier, right? I threw a large scoop (about 1/2 a cup?) of Nutella in the batter, as well as chopped pear bits. As soon as the bread went in the oven, I looked at my counter and realized I--doh!--hadn't added the requisite sugar. Thanks to the gooey swirls of sweet hazelnut spread, this wasn't a problem--in fact, sans sugar it seemed less ridiculous to eat the bread for breakfast every day this week.

Click here for the full original recipe. I admit I was skeptical regarding the lack of butter or oil, but high banana content (plus my pear I think) provided plenty of rich, moist flavor.

Oops, I Killed the Yeast: Quick Bread to the Rescue

The savory zucchini bread that saved the day.

Thursday was cold in New York, as WNYC kept reminding me: "It's currently 20 degrees but FEELS LIKE 100 below." Perfect weather for bread baking. Over Christmas, I sampled my increasingly domesticated sister's fantastic sourdough and was determined to put the oven to work when I returned to New York. Unable to take some of her starter with me on the plane, I opted for a plain loaf of milk bread from Joy of Cooking. This recipe requires you to heat the milk to 110 degrees before adding it to the dough. Of course, I wasn't paying attention and heated it well beyond the 110 degrees. Instead of allowing it to cool, I unthinkingly dumped it directly into the yeast-filled bowl. As I felt the metal bowl heating up below me, I knew I'd made a stupid mistake. Any temperature over 120 degrees kills the yeast and prevents the bread from rising. I persevered with the recipe, hoping a few hearty yeasties survived, but it rose nary a millimeter and baked into a rock hard mess.

Sniff. After the yeast died.

Fortunately, my bread-making afternoon was not a waste. Throughout the fall school semester, I've sneaked a glance or two at fellow foodblogs, bookmarking recipes for some later date. The savory onion zucchini bread at What Geek's Eat has had me drooling for months, and it more than made up for the yeast bread failure. Chock full of shredded zucchini, onion and parmesan cheese, I ate about 1/2 a loaf within the first few hours it was out of the oven. No kneading, no rising time, no chance you'll kill the zucchini. Pure savory bread-making bliss.