Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

I will be the first to admit that I am no Betty Crocker. I took cooking classes all through high school (which is where Jake and I first met) and I even competed in some cooking competitions. I worked in restaurants in the back as side chefs, but I never quite got a handle on baking. I swear, every time I try to make something sweet, it never fails that something will go wrong. I've even messed up cobbler, and that only has a handful of ingredients.

Lately, I've been really have a sweet tooth that I can't kick and nothing at the store seems to be helping with it. My mom always made banana bread when I was growing up, and I love it! I always buy a lot of fruits and veggies when I go shopping, and I hate to waste things. Well this time around, Jake didn't eat the amount of bananas he usually eats so I had two that were turning pretty dark. I looked up tons of recipes online and in my cookbooks for banana bread but most of them were banana nut bread, and they all called for a ton of ingredients. I didn't have everything and although I do have to go to the store later today, I wanted to get my baking done during Easton's morning nap. So, I basically winged it, taking measurements and ingredients from one recipe to another, and I seriously prayed and crossed my fingers that it would come out okay. To my SHOCKING surprise, it did! My house smelled so yummy that I was counting down the minutes to when the timer would go off and I could take it out of the oven. I'm no dessert chef but this was delicious. I guess I will have to wait and see what the final verdict is once Jake gets home later on and tries it. I swear, he's the biggest food critic so if he says it's good, then it must be! I'm sure Easton will have no problem gobbling some of it up since it does have chocolate in it, and as for me, well I will have to work on my self control and remind myself to share! Here's the recipe I used, and thankfully I wrote this one down as I went along. I like to read the whole recipe first, gather all of my tools and ingredients, and then get going, so that's my suggestion for you!


Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

1 1/2 cups All purpose Flour, plus more for flouring your pan.
Baking Spray for your pan
1 cup + 1 tablespoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Oil (I used vegetable oil, but coconut oil would be delicious I bet!)
2 Eggs
3 Ripe Bananas
1 cup Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (you can use any kind of chocolate chips, I just always buy Hershey's)


First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I read on numerous recipes to be sure to place your oven rack in the center of the oven, so I did that as well.

Spray and/or flour your pan! I used a Tupperware UltraPro Bread Pan, which is suppose to be non-stick, so I didn't spray or flour my pan. I definitely should have, because I had quite the trouble getting it out. So even if your pan is suppose to be a non-stick, make your life a little easier and spray or flour it right from the beginning!

In my Kitchen Aid, I put all of the flour, one cup of sugar, all of the baking soda, and all of the salt, and I mixed that for a minute or so to make sure they were all well blended. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar. Place half of the cinnamon sugar mixture into the dry ingredient mix and blend together. Into the dry ingredients, add the eggs and oil. Mix well. When I did this, I was very nervous because my mixture was very crumbly and wasn't coming together. If this happens, it's okay! Trust me! On a small plate, I pealed the bananas and coarsely chopped them. Then add the bananas to the rest of the bread mixture and mix well. You should notice now that the batter looks the way that it should. Now fold in the chocolate chips. You don't have to beat them in, just do it by hand and only a couple mixes, flips, and turns, and you should be good to go - just until they are mixed with the rest of the batter.

Now pour all of that gooey yumminess into your bread pan. Then, take the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture and sprinkle it on top. This made a yummy crispy top, but it is optional. You could put all of the cinnamon sugar mixture into the matter if you don't like the crispy edges, or you could go without the cinnamon mixture all together. Either way I'm sure it's delicious.

Place in the center of your oven rack and set your timer for 60 minutes. Once that timer goes off, take it out and knife-test it (place a butter knife into the center of the bread, if it comes out smooth, you're good to go. If it comes out sticky with batter still on it, it needs some more baking time). I noticed that 60 minutes wasn't enough time for mine, so I placed it in for another 15 minutes. Be sure to check your bread each time! Every oven and pan cooks differently so you never know.

After those last 15 minutes were up, I did another knife-test and it was ready. I pulled out the bread pan and let it sit on top of my stove for another 10 minutes. After that, I battled to get it out but finally got it out and onto a cutting board, to cool down some more.

The end results? YUMMY, delicious, moist, EASY banana chocolate chip bread. A good snack, an easy breakfast grab, and some dessert for after tonights dinner. I will be the first to admit that I very much doubted this recipe that I concocted up, and I was almost expecting it to fail. If I would have known it was going to come out good, I would have taken pictures along the way. Buttttttt I didn't, so all I have is this one picture of the finished product. I swear, I'll get better at this as I go. Since this came out so good and my confidence is at a peak right now, I just might try my hand at making something new for dinner. I'm thinking Sticky Honey Orange Chicken Legs? I better get to researching while Easton's napping right now. Stay tuned for that recipe! What are some other recipes you'd like to see?? Let me know!

xoxo,
Christine