Hurray! The Secret Recipe Club is back!
If you're not familiar with the concept, here's the Coles Notes version - every month, a group of SRC members are given a secret blogger buddy, and are responsible for making and photographing and documenting one of their recipes. Then we all reveal those recipes at the same time on the same day, and have a grand ol' time checking out the great finds.
It's always exciting to see who my blogger buddy is each month, and I'm particularly excited this time around because I was assigned to Jen of Beantown Baker.
Jen has been blogging for nearly 5 years and posts as often as twice a week... as you can imagine, there is no lack of recipes to choose from! True to her blog's name, she is indeed from Boston, and mostly blogs about baked goods and sweet treats, though she does have quite a few savoury recipes, too.
After spending a while poking around (and making myself very hungry in the process), I realised I kept returning to her Cinnamon Banana Bread. I can never pass up a good banana bread recipe, and this one looked positively irresistible... honestly, who could look at that crackled top full of gooey cinnamon goodness and not get an instant craving? Not me, that's for sure.
The only thing that stood between me and banana bread heaven was those darned cinnamon chips.
You see, Hershey's doesn't seem to think we Canadians are ready for the awesomeness that is cinnamon chips. We can get dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, toffee chips and even mint-chocolate chips, but much to my dismay, there is not a single bag of cinnamon chips to be found anywhere in the city of Toronto. I take comfort in the fact that at least we get Coffee Crisp chocolate bars, ketchup chips and Habitant pea soup in exchange.
So, rather than give up and make something totally different, I decided to make the banana bread using the next best thing... toffee chips!
I did make a few other changes to Jen's recipe - I swapped out the old-fashioned oats for a smaller amount of quick-cook oats because I wanted a less oatmealy sort of texture, added a ¼ cup Greek yogurt to make it extra-moist, doubled the cinnamon to make up for the lack of cinnamon chips, and stirred in some chopped pecans for crunch. Of course, my changes mean this recipe isn't quite as healthy as Jen's version, but let's just cut slightly thinner slices and pretend that makes up for it. :)
The end result is a tender, moist banana bread with a noticeable cinnamon flavour that's dotted with melted toffee and crisp pecans. It's so darned good that I feel slightly guilty about eating it for breakfast, because it tastes like it ought to be a dessert.
Then again, nothing's stopping me from having it for breakfast AND dessert. Right?
//
- 1½ cup flour
- ½ cup quick-cook rolled oats, uncooked
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (~1 cup)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp walnut or canola oil
- ½ cup chopped pecans (optional)
- ½ cup toffee bits (ie. Skor or Heath chips)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In a second mixing bowl, mix together the banana, yogurt, oil and eggs until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients, and stir until the batter just barely comes together. Fold in the pecans, if using, and toffee chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- In a small bowl, stir together the topping ingredients, and sprinkle evenly onto the batter.
- Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top of the loaf feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with a moist crumb. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then unmold and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
MikeVFMK says
love making bread like this through the winter. sounds heavenly Izzy! And looks even better. if only my oven worked right now.
Margaret says
That looks AMAZINGLY delicious. No cinnamon chips in Toronto! Bummer!!! Course they are only in the US stores during the holiday, so....
Love your header!!
Hester @ Alchemy in the Kitchen says
Wow Isabelle, it's like finding out that plain ol' banana bread has a secret life as a cabaret singer! Love your take on this!
Kim Bee says
Holy shnikeys this is gorgeous. You got assigned a great blog. And made a perfect pick for your recipe. Just love all your photos.
Kristina says
oo yum! I love the toffee chip addition! And honestly I don't even think I've seen cinnamon chips in the states? I'll keep me eye out next time!
Amanda says
Nice! And no cinnamon chips :-( that stinks! I have used them several times, so you definitely need to write to Nestle! :) This bread sounds and looks amazing!
Mercedes says
I cannot wait to join the SRC! I just need a few more recipes! It sounds like so much fun and this bread looks amazing!
myfudo says
Banana bread all by itself is already awesome...The toffee chips are a great addition.Great post!
Katherine Martinelli says
I love this! I've never even heard of cinnamon chips, but I think toffee chips are a great substitute. Looks amazing.
Mary says
I have just about given up on ever finding those elusive cinnamon chips too. And I am not in Canada. I'm in a huge American city and they were still nowhere to be found throughout the holidays. Go figure.
Your bread sounds delicious though. Way to improvise!
[email protected] says
This looks wonderful! I doubt the cinnamon chips were missed and yep, they can be a pain to find here in the states too.
Now to go buy some bananas so that they get ripe enough for banana bread :-)
Tiffany says
Oh. My. Word.! those toffee chips looks so tasty... and I think I can smell the cinnamon through my computer screen!
Priscilla M says
Now can I have this for breakfast?
Liam @ "Is butter a carb?" says
I'm on my way over for a slice. Get the kettle on. ;)
Kiri W. says
Look, banana bread is sexy, already. Now, you've created a vixen! ;) This looks amaaazing. toffee always gets me :)
Shelby says
I love your addition of the toffee...bananas and toffee are awesome together. Cinnamon chips aren't that easy to find here either. So sad!
Tessa says
I have so many over-brown bananas in the freezer. This bread recipe sounds like a delicious solution. Great pick for SRC. I am adding this one to my list right now!
Becca @ Crumbs and Chaos says
Oh my word! We always seem to have bananas that need to be used up - toffee sounds like an awesome addition to this bread!
Jen @ BeantownBaker.com says
So glad you enjoyed the bread. Cinnamon chips are hard to find here too, so I stock up when I see them!
bellini says
I go shopping for groceries in the States maybe twice a year and pick up what I cannot find here. Cinnamon chips will have to be on my list as well as the peanut butter ones too.
NO REASONN NEEDED says
Eh! It's always great to find other Canadian blogs. It always amazes me that we are so close yet so far from the States when it comes to product availability. Great pick.
Isabelle says
Yay for fellow Canucks! :)
Veronica says
I live in the US and it is so hard for me to get cinnamon chips! I finally found a source in a cake supply store, but I like the sound of the toffee chips so much that I'm not sure which way I will make it, only that I have to! Great SRC pick and beautiful photos!
Isabelle says
I didn't realise that cinnamon chips were so hard to find in the US, too! That makes me feel a little better about the fact that I couldn't find any. :)
The toffee version is very yummy, but I think the cinnamon is the way to go if you've got a source for those elusive cinnamon chips!
[email protected] says
I was just trying to figure out what to do with my ripe bananas...I think I got it!
Noelle (@singerinkitchen) says
I need to make this ASAP! Pinned it.
Asiya says
This looks great and very easy to make. I've never even heard of cinnamon chips before!!! I also have always been surprised that ketchup chips were not sold in the States..they were my favorite chips growing up!
Isabelle says
I only discovered cinnamon chips recently (through a post on another blog, in fact). I guess that's the wonderful thing about food blogs... you can read all about the wonderful, delicious products that are sold in other countries. :)
Deanna B. says
I have a thing about cinnamon chips. I try not to use products I couldn't make at home, and I have no idea how a cinnamon chip is made. Toffee chips I love with all my heart, and the banana bread sounds pretty amazing.
Isabelle says
I can totally relate, Deanna. I think of cinnamon chips in the same way as chocolate chips... I can't really chocolate from scratch either, but it's still on my "okay" list seeing as there aren't a whole lot of unprocessed alternatives and chocolate chips aren't horrendously bad in terms of additives.
Bizzy says
Yummy. What wonderful flavors are in this loaf.
Lisa~~ says
Looks and sounds wonderful and love the changes that you made.
Lisa~~
Lisa @ Sweet as Sugar Cookies says
I've made this bread before too and really enjoyed it.