North Bay Woman

20 NORTH BAY WOMAN F A L L 2 0 2 0 ingredients, it's a real escape. My favorite thing now is to bake things from recipes I've never made before. The excitement of wondering how it will come out; I actually get nervous about it. The journey of all that creativity is so stimulating." But journalist to the core, Upshaw Swartz doesn't just share her goods with her family or give them to colleagues in the newsroom. She interviews everyone who eats her treats. "I grill them. I ask them really weird questions," she laughed. "I want to know immediately, 'What's it like on the inside, I want to see, so take a picture.' That's the most frustrating part of cake. If you're not there when they cut it, you don't know how it came out. In addition to the emotional experience of smelling the ingredients, playing with them, putting them together as part of the pro- cess, I'm super technical at the end. I have to know, 'What's going on? What does it look like inside? Is it over- cooked?' Good luck when I give you something I've baked." Gary Klien, a longtime editor and news reporter for the Marin IJ, has eaten numerous slices of his colleague's banana bread. As he put it, "Jenn goes at baking like she goes at editing, parenting, golfing or anything else: with maximum gusto. Her kitchen is like a baking laboratory and a journalism clinic. And her banana and chocolate chip cake is a source of spiritual sustenance in our diminished world." He describes the experience of its texture and flavor as "perfectly spongy. The bananas are present without leaving pockets of mush. The crust is firm but not tough and not overly sweet. The chocolate chip strangely is aggressive but well short of overwhelming. It's just straightforward comfort, especially with coffee." Just as the news is changing minute by minute, Upshaw Swartz's baking quest for new and perfect results, will contin- ue. I asked her what she has found most stimulating in these months of lock down. "In terms of stimulation, it might be the cheesecake," she said. "I had no idea how hard it was – like childbirth. If I had known how hard it was I wouldn't have done it. Midway through I thought, 'What have I gotten myself into?,' and midway through there was no turning back. Figuring out the water bath. The top was a little … I have since figured out how to put parchment on it." Of course. She works in newspaper. It was a natural that her baking would evolve to include parchment paper. n Swartz's Toll House cookie baking chart listed by degrees and baking time. – Photo by Jennifer Upshaw Swartz Makes 1 loaf Ingredients ¼ cup vegetable oil 1 ½ cups flour 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 3 bananas, mashed (1 cup mashed bananas) 1 cup chocolate chips Preparation Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 ½ -inch x 4 ½-inch loaf pan (or use baking spray). In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix in the oil, bananas and eggs. Stir in the chocolate chips (do not over-mix) and pour into the pre- pared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 60-80 minutes. Cool the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely, right side up. JENNIFER UPSHAW SWARTZ'S BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD A Rachel Ray recipe – Photo by Jennifer Upshaw Swartz

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