Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

I love to eat this banana chocolate chip bread as a snack, dessert, or side with dinner. It has always been my dad’s favorite. You usually need to plan ahead to make this bread unless you already have ripe bananas sitting on the counter. Sometimes I will buy extra bananas at the grocery store and let them sit on the counter all week. If I don’t have time that week to make the banana bread, I freeze the bananas (without the peel) in a zip lock bag. You will just need them to defrost ahead of baking. 

This recipe is from the Elsah Landing Restaurant cookbook. Elsah is a small town in Illinois and my mom has had this cookbook for a long time. I like to look back through the recipes where she made notes on how she rated the dish and any extra comments of ingredients she added. I do this in my cookbooks, so I know when I made a recipe and to remind myself what I really thought of it.

Makes (1) Loaf *I like to double the recipe for (2) loaves* 

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup butter

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)

3 T milk

2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x5x3 loaf pan. I like to use a paper towel to grease the pan with butter. I then know I have gotten all of the corners, which is a gamble with PAM spray.

For the batter, first, cream the butter and then add the sugar until light and fluffy. Lastly, add the egg until fluffy again. Set aside.

Mash the bananas in a small bowl and combine with the milk. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a small bowl. The rest of the batter will be combined by hand with a spatula or spoon. The dry and wet ingredients will be alternated into the butter mixture. Add 1/3 of the flour and mix until combined. Then add 1/2 of the banana mixture. Repeat with 1/3 dry and the remaining wet ingredients. End with the rest of the flour. Mix only until just moistened.

Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans. Pour batter into loaf pan. If making two loaves, evenly pour the batter between the two loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour, but set your timer for 50-55 minutes to make sure the banana bread is not cooking faster in your oven. Use a toothpick to test to see if it is cooked. It should come out clean without liquid batter on it. Be careful because sometimes it is still gooey in the cracks of the bread, but you do not want to over bake the rest of it. Use the toothpick to check a few different spots in the load to test if it is done. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and let cool on a rack.

There are so many banana bread recipes out there, but I love this one a lot because of the chocolate chips and it tastes great every time. You always need recipes that will consistently turn out well for you each time you make it.