Chocolate Chip Banana Bread...You Know it's Tomorrow's Breakfast

So you know how you let those bananas go bad and threw them out last week? Shame on you. You should have made delicious banana bread or thrown those bitches in the freezer for later bread. Now you know better. Chocolate chip banana muffins were my mom’s go-to after school snack…but she cheated and used the box every time.  It’s stupid easy so I’ve ditched the box and made a couple changes to http://www.lovintheoven.com/2010/03/cinnamon-swirl-banana-bread.html recipe. My version after this tasty crumbly picture!

Ingredients:

¼-1/3 cup butter, softened

1 egg, whisked

3 Ripe or Over Ripe Banana. Just not green ones, really.

2/3 cup sugar, half and half of brown sugar and white sugar

½ to 1 cup (or more!) chocolate chips – this is personal preference depending on if you want a chocolatey snack

1 ½ cups flour

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional – ¼ cup sugar and 1/4+ tsp cinnamon mixed and sprinkled on top before baking for sugary crust

Preheat oven to 350 f. Butter and flour a standard loaf pan – mine is about 5 x 9.

In small bowl combine flour with baking soda and salt, mix evenly and set aside.

In a large bowl add sugar and 3 peeled bananas. Mash the bananas with the sugars until even and there aren’t large chunks anymore.

Add softened/melted butter, vanilla and beaten egg to the banana/sugar mixture until smooth and consistent. 

Gradually stir in flour mixture into the liquid batter 1/3 at a time. Add some chocolate chips with the 2^nd addition of the flour mixture and the rest during the third to evenly add chocolate chips without over mixing.

Pour the final mixture into your bread pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 45-60 min, depending on your oven. I would start checking on it regularly after 30 min, especially if your oven runs hot. Test for doneness with the tried and true tooth pick in the middle method. The bread will continue to cook in the pan as it cools so do not overbake! No really.

If you think you overbaked it, run a knife along the edges and press gently towards the bread to release it from the pan. Place cooling rack over the bread pan and flip the bread out to cool with less additional in-pan baking. Om nom nom for breakfast or whenever.