Magnolia Monday: Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

Welcome to the first post for the brand new Magnolia Monday posts! Each week I will share pictures and experiences of making things from this fabulous cook book.

The idea here is to highlight the wonderful cook book from the lovely ladies of Magnolia Bakery. I'm so excited to share my experiences baking new things from this book along with good homemade classics. I will not be sharing exact amounts from these recipes because I really believe that you need to buy this book for yourself and try out all the wonderful things these ladies have created.

I wanted to start off with something simple to ease me into baking all the delcious items in this book. I decided on making the Chocolate Chip Peanut Banana Loaf (Pg.21). My 15 year old neighbor, Jillian, brought over some bananas a couple days prior and begged my mother to make her banana bread :). I decided to make it for her instead! The original recipe from Magnolia Bakery uses peanuts but I decided to omit that since Jill is a classic banana bread kind of girl, like myself. The recipe also calls for self rising flour but since I didn't have any on hand I made my own easy concoction (2 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt). Self rising flour is simply a combination of flour, baking powder, and salt already mixed together, so if you don't have this on hand it is an easy fix.

Honestly, I was a little scared of not using store bought self rising flour at first because I wasn't sure if I had the right ratios or if the loaf would rise or taste appropriately. But it ended up turning out beautifully! It was so incredibly moist and tasty that I was pleasantly surprised. The loaf wasn't too crazy sweet like some store bought mixes can tend to be, between the added sugar and natural banana flavor it was absolutely delicious. Magnolia Bakery's version of this classic had such a great balance of sweetness. The one thing I would change for next time would be to follow the recipe exactly and add the peanuts. The crunch of the peanuts in the loaf would have added a great dimension of textures that I would have loved to try out.

I would highly recommend buying this book and making this banana bread for yourself. It is 100% homemade and super easy to make! Let me know if you try this out for yourself!

Stay tuned every Monday for more Magnolia bakes!