When it came time to bake something for an office holiday party, I could have stuck to the theme and made Christmas cookies. But instead I decided to go with a Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel because I had a bunch of perfectly overripe bananas in my fruit bowl. I can usually find only very underripe bananas at the supermarket, and after I bring them home, it's challenging to predict precisely how long it will take for the bananas to progress from green to perfectly dark speckled brown, when they are ready for baking. But bananas can go from the ideal overripe to rotten in the blink of an eye, so whenever I have overripe bananas, I try to use them in a recipe ASAP. (I know you can freeze bananas, but it's my personal preference not to do this because I don't like how the liquid separates out from the fruit.)
Anyway, even though a banana cake seemed like an odd choice for a holiday party, I forged ahead. I doubled the recipe to make it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. To make the cake batter, you cream sugar and butter until fluffy; add an egg, mashed bananas, and buttermilk; and mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt). I spread half of the cake batter in my parchment-lined pan; sprinkled on a streusel made from chocolate chips, brown sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts; and then layered on the rest of the cake batter and more streusel.
When I sliced the cooled cake, the streusel layer inside looked like it had sunk quite low, instead of being precisely in the middle where I had expected it to be. I actually wouldn't call this mixture a "streusel," since it doesn't include any flour -- it's merely a loose mixture of sugar and cinnamon and nuts and chocolate. But no matter what you call it, this cake is incredibly delicious.
I used a total of 640 grams of bananas for my double batch of cake, and I loved the strong banana flavor. However, I think the weight of bananas I used is likely the upper limit of what's advisable. The cake was somewhat wet and squidgy, especially at the bottom. While I like the moist texture of banana cakes, I think that if this cake had any more moisture, it would push the texture into the realm of soggy. I also think that it would be better to use miniature chocolate chips instead of regular-sized ones. The chocolate seemed a bit too chunky and clunky. But really, these are very minor quibbles. The combination of flavors in this cake were terrific and it was a hit at the party.
I thought that cake tasted amazing and I would happily eat it for breakfast or a snack or dessert any time. At any time of year!
Recipe: "Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel" from epicurious.com.
Anyway, even though a banana cake seemed like an odd choice for a holiday party, I forged ahead. I doubled the recipe to make it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan. To make the cake batter, you cream sugar and butter until fluffy; add an egg, mashed bananas, and buttermilk; and mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt). I spread half of the cake batter in my parchment-lined pan; sprinkled on a streusel made from chocolate chips, brown sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts; and then layered on the rest of the cake batter and more streusel.
I used a total of 640 grams of bananas for my double batch of cake, and I loved the strong banana flavor. However, I think the weight of bananas I used is likely the upper limit of what's advisable. The cake was somewhat wet and squidgy, especially at the bottom. While I like the moist texture of banana cakes, I think that if this cake had any more moisture, it would push the texture into the realm of soggy. I also think that it would be better to use miniature chocolate chips instead of regular-sized ones. The chocolate seemed a bit too chunky and clunky. But really, these are very minor quibbles. The combination of flavors in this cake were terrific and it was a hit at the party.
I thought that cake tasted amazing and I would happily eat it for breakfast or a snack or dessert any time. At any time of year!
Recipe: "Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel" from epicurious.com.
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