Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Don’t Throw Away Your Fruit, Transform It
I hate to throw away food. There are some food items, however, like avocados and bananas that seem to have two modes: too unripe to eat or disgustingly overripe. They each have one perfect moment and, as they say, if you snooze you lose. Until now, bananas! This chocolate chip banana bread is the perfect way to get the upper hand on this delicate baby of a fruit.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Gets Rid of a Few Bad Bananas
Moist and super flavorful, you can manage to get rid of two to three overripe bananas in one recipe. The optimal time for the bananas is when they are brown and very soft. Too gross to eat? Perfect! Mash them up with a fork and the bananas serve to add both taste and texture to your bread.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread or Not – You Decide
The rest of the ingredients are basic pantry staples. I like to add a touch of cinnamon, as well as vanilla, to the bread for added flavor. When can you go wrong with chocolate? Almost never! So adding chocolate chips is really just a delightful addition that turns this into a sort of very dense cake. You can totally leave them out – but why would you?
No Mixer Required
The entire thing comes together quickly. Best of all, you don’t even need to break out your mixer. I was away from mine (which is always quite traumatic to me) and wanted to make something that could be stirred together with a spoon. Because this recipe uses melted butter, the batter is super easy to stir by hand.
Patience is a Virtue – and Necessary
Chocolate chip banana bread is pretty dense, so the bake time is about 60 minutes. It is done when the bread pulls away from the side of the pan and a wooden skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out without any dough. It will, however, probably have melted chocolate on it because we are not skimping on the chocolate here.
Note: Make sure you give your bread time to cool before slicing. I know, I know. Who can wait? But you don’t want it to fall apart. Patience, friends. Once it is cool, you should wrap it in foil or store in an airtight container.
So go clean up your pantry and mix together this easy, tasty recipe.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2-3 very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chip
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare a loaf pan (I use glass) by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray or by greasing it with butter and lightly flouring it. Set aside.
- Whisk together (you can use a fork) the flour and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl.
- Mash the bananas in a small bowl.
- Melt the butter. I do that in a microwave.
- Add the melted butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- Add the vanilla and cinnamon to the butter/sugar mixture and stir to combine.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring between additions.
- Add the mashed bananas and stir to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Make sure you scrape down the sides and up from the bottom to incorporate everything thoroughy.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir in until just combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula.
- Bake for about 60 minutes, checking after 40. You can tent with foil if the top starts to get too dark. The bread is done when a knife or wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out free of batter. Note: You will definitely have melted chocolate on the knife.
- Let the bread cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. Make sure you let it cool completely before cutting – no matter how much you are tempted.
