I don’t get a chance to listen to the radio much on the weekends, but when I do, I try to catch the public radio show “The Splendid Table.”
It’s a fun listen, if you’ve never heard it. The show isn’t just about sharing recipes. They tend to jump into all aspects of food—the culture, the techniques, the cooks. Strangely enough through, despite listening to quite a few episodes over the years, I haven’t tried very many of the featured recipes.
That changed this week when I was once again looking for some way to keep using up the rapidly browning bananas on my countertop, and I realized I should have tried more of their dishes a lot sooner, because this one was delicious.
This recipe is on “The Splendid Table” website and was written by Samantha Seneviratne for her cookbook “The Joys of Baking.” You can find the original post at https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2020/01/17/banana-bread-scones. I doubled the vanilla and changed the directions just a tad in my version. I also used walnuts instead of toasted hazelnuts.
Banana Bread Scones
Ingredients
- 1 large over-ripe banana, mashed
- 1/3 cup heavy cream plus some for brushing tops
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter cold and cubed
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup walnuts finely chopped
- Sugar for tops of scones
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
- Beat the banana, cream, egg and vanilla together in a small bowl.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt and then cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter or a fork. Once the mixture looks crumbly, add in the banana mixture and stir until just combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.
- Using a large cookie scoop, place scoops of the batter about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Brush the tops of the dough with cream and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
We had to make sure to give several of these away, because Joey and I were going to quickly eat all of them by ourselves. If you like banana bread, you’ll definitely like these, too.
The only problem is this recipe only helped me get rid of a single banana. I may have to make a second batch this weekend. I already know what I can listen to while I do.
This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 29, 2020.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
