Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

We had some overripe bananas sitting on top of the fridge getting browner by the minute, so I decided to put them to good use. I’m not the biggest fan of banana bread—I’m just not a big fan of bananas in general. BUT, I will devour banana bread when it has chocolate chips in it. I also had half a bag of chocolate chips lying around, and all the ingredients to make banana bread, so why not?

I just Googled it and found this recipe, and it worked out just fine.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 cup granulated sugar
4 ounces butter (1 stick), softened
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cream sugar and butter; beat in the mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla.

In case you’ve never made banana bread before, you use overripe (pretty brown) bananas and mash the bananas with a fork. 1 and a half cups is about three regular-sized bananas.

Combine dry ingredients and stir into the first mixture just until moistened.

Fold in chocolate chips until well incorporated. Pour batter into greased and floured 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

Cover loosely with a tent of aluminum foil. Bake at 325° for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 3o to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted tests done. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan and cool banana bread completely before slicing.

I will admit, I did not wait for it to fully cool before slicing, which is why the chocolate chips are all melty in the photo. Warm chocolate chip banana bread is just too good to pass up!

Mmm. Moist and chocolatey.

Tip: Avoid using a glass loaf pan if possible. I didn’t have a metal pan of the right size, so I used a glass one, and I had to bake it way longer than the recipe states until my tester came out clean. It made the crust a lot crunchier than I would have liked. Still delicious, though. Just avoid the glass pan if you’re able.

You could also probably make muffins out of this exact recipe and they’ll be great—just watch them as they bake so you know when to take them out. The bake time won’t be the same for muffins as it will for a loaf.

So, if you have some bananas sitting around that are beginning to look a little past their peak, this is a perfect way to use them up. And I bet you have all the ingredients in your fridge/cupboard. Super easy and super delicious for snacking or a sweet breakfast on the go!