Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Have you ever searched for banana bread recipes online and found results that read “best banana bread recipe”, “super moist banana bread”, or “easy banana bread recipe”?

I bet you have.

Wes told the kids that I was making banana bread this weekend (ahem… thanks sweetheart?). The kids, of course, were excited because, you know… banana bread!

We love, love, looooove bananas but sometimes we don’t eat them fast enough so as you know, they turn brown and sweet and PERFECT for banana bread. A while ago, I learned that the key to a good banana bread is extra ripe bananas. You can’t make banana bread with green bananas.

I woke up early on Saturday with every intention of going for a morning run. But my friend and I decided to go in the afternoon instead, with our kids. We got really lucky with the weather. It has been raining so much here in Washington lately.

Instead of going for a morning run, I got to baking 3 loaves of chocolate chip banana bread. Which was a perfect post-run snack!

I don’t exactly have a “best” or “easy” recipe but I have a recipe that I very much like. It is not complicated and so I thought to share it with you. For this bread I wanted to try using whole wheat flour so I used half whole wheat and half unbleached all purpose flour.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 large (very) ripe bananas
• 2 large eggs
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves (optional)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F
2. Spray a 9×5″ loaf pan with non stick cooking spray.
3. In a medium size bowl mash bananas with a fork.
4. Mix in the eggs and vanilla with the mashed bananas.
5. In large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg (if using).
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well until everything is combined.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips.
8. Pour batter into the prepared pan and put in oven.
9. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire (cooling) rack.
11. Enjoy!

If you make this recipe, please come back and let me know what you think. I had only made this recipe with all purpose flour in the past but really like how it came out with whole wheat flour. I gave a loaf to my running friend and her daughter said it was “FIRE”. That’s a win for me 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

See you soon.