Recipe Redux: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Happy Monday friends! I promised in January that I was going to share this recipe soon, and then... I went on break. However, I'm back, it's spring, and it's time to talk about chocolate and banana. Only one of the best foodie combinations ever, if you ask me. Next to chocolate and peanut butter, and maybe peanut butter and banana, of course 😂  I enjoy a good banana bread on its own but when you add chocolate, it just takes it to another level! 🍌🍫

I first posted this recipe in October of 2012 and I can't believe how much has changed since then. The hubby and I were actually in Oregon when I posted this, on a month-long visit while we were homeless. Our house was being constructed and taking much longer than anticipated. Our 3-month long stay with the hubby's aunt and uncle had spanned into 5 months and in October, there was still no end in sight to the build. We went to Oregon for a month, but when we got back, we went to live with the hubby's mother for about 30 days before the house was finally, finally finished.  It was a rough time period, but that month we had in Oregon, oh, it was one of the best trips ever. It flew by, and I actually cried when we had to go home. The trip might have been so awesome because we had the dogs with us so I wasn't missing anyone... but it was still a marvelous trip. 

Now, we've been in the house for 5 years and looking back at that time period when we were vagabonds seems so far away. So far away, and yet, I can remember like it was yesterday how awful it felt to be shuffled from house to house. It certainly makes me so incredibly thankful for this little house we were able to build. 

For this little house has a fantastic 5-year old oven to bake banana bread in. Yippee!

The cornerstone of banana bread is the ripe banana. These bananas were just ripe enough. I've used bananas that were way browner and while they slide easily in to the bowl and mash at the touch of a spoon, these yellower bananas still did the trick. They were ripe enough to mash. You can wait until the bananas are much, much browner though. 

This is a pretty simple recipe with very few ingredients- flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and of course, bananas. 

Mix the dry ingredients together first-

And then the wet. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and then mix in the other ingredients. I mix in the banana last. 

Once the wet ingredients are thoroughly blended, take a spatula and mix in the dry ingredients. Fold the flour mixture in until just barely moistened. Over-stirring will cause the bread to be tough, and we don't want that. 

Fold in the chocolate chips, and then move your batter into a standard-size loaf pan. 

Mine bakes for a little over an hour.  After sufficient cooling, you are hereby authorized to slice that baby up!

Banana bread. The bread that's more cake than bread 😁

And there you have it folks! I'm just sorry I promised this to you guys in January and didn't deliver until March. But now you have it. I say make this today, because who doesn't like to come home to the smell of banana bread? 

From what I've heard from the peanut gallery, the smell of banana bread is much preferred over the smell of fish 😂 Oh, that hubby!  

Have a great day everyone!

Recipe adapted from: AllRecipes

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, room temp

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a standard loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. In a separate large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with a hand-mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs. Mix in vanilla. Mix in bananas. With a spatula, add flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 60-65º. I like to take the temperature of my quick breads, and I pull them at 190º. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storage. 

Printable Recipe

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these-

Vanilla Quick Bread

Chocolate Avocado Quick Bread

Mini Chocolate Chip Zucchini Loaves

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