Life has handed us some rotten bananas lately, lucky for us they are the key ingredient to some yummy banana bread.
My youngest loves banana bread so while he sleeps in until noon (quarantine sleep schedule!) I took out some aggression on a few unsuspecting bananas and got to work. Below is my go-to recipe and very unlike most baking recipes you can fudge a little on the amounts of stuff like the bananas and the chocolate chips (you cannot fudge on the flour/salt/baking soda though because.... science). The chocolate chips are totally optional (but why not right now? Yoga pants will forgive you for adding the chocolate).
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 2 1/3 cups mashed bananas
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more, or less, or none... this is optional)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In one large bowl - mix together the flour, baking soda & salt.
In another large bowl - mix together the butter (softened), vanilla and brown sugar first. Then add in the bananas and eggs and mix it all together.
Pour the flour mixture over the gooey stuff and blend it all - don't over mix though, just mix it until you don't see any dry flour mixture.
Pour in all the chocolate you want, or skip this step if you are not a fan of chocolate in your banana bread. Your call. We were out of chocolate chips once and dumped in M&Ms, worked great. Chopped up peanut butter cups would also probably work... imagine the peanut butter, chocolate, banana goodness... I digress...
Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan.
What does "prepared" mean? It means you have sprayed it with nonstick spray or covered it in butter or whatever trick you prefer to make that bread not stick to the pan. I personally prefer to use PAM baking spray with flour but in a pinch have used everything from butter to olive oil cooking spray.
Bake for approximately an hour.
I recommend checking it at 50 minutes. Insert a butter knife (or bamboo skewer if you have one) into the center, if it comes out dry you are ready to pull it out of the oven. If it has batter on it, leave it in and check on it in 10 minute intervals. You may need to lightly cover the top with foil if you see the top is getting too crispy.
Once you remove your masterpiece from the oven, let it cool before digging in.
Those chocolate chips are little bits of lava right out of the oven.
Enjoy!
*This recipe was adapted from this recipe here
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