Banana Bread

What do you do with your over ripe bananas? Normally bananas get eaten pretty quickly at our house, but every once in a while we have a few that sit around and get overly ripe. When that happens, I like to make up a batch of banana bread.  Here's a great recipe that you might like to try.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas, mashed well
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips 

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla and then add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring as little as possible.  Lightly fold in the nuts and chocolate just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (Do not over mix the batter, you do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread.)

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until bread is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 1 – 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf of banana bread

When I was making this loaf I didn't have dark chocolate chips on hand so I threw in some white chocolate instead and I really like the taste that it gave the bread.  You could mix up the types of nuts also, maybe use walnuts instead.

If you try the recipe, let me know what you think.  Happy baking!!