Golden Banana Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips

Raise your hand if you have a few ripe bananas sitting on your kitchen counter right now. When faced with bananas that are past their prime, what do you do? Do you peel, slice, and freeze in Ziplock bags for future fruit smoothies and smoothie bowls? Do you mash em for banana muffins? Or do you use them in your favorite banana nice-cream recipe? Perhaps you’re looking for new inspiration or you’re tired of the same old, same old banana bread that you’ve been making for years.

To the ripe-banana rescue is Katie Morford, MS, RDN, the voice behind the family food blog, Mom’s Kitchen Handbook, author of PREP: The Essential College Cookbook, and the creator of this recipe for Golden Banana Bread.    

It’s impossible to eat just one slice! Katie’s recipe calls for four ripe mashed bananas, all-purpose flour, canola oil, sugar, eggs, sour cream and chopped walnuts. I made a few modifications to the recipe based on what I had on hand and a few personal preferences.

– Swapped the sour cream with plain, full-fat Greek yogurt
– Used chopped pecans instead of walnuts
– Replaced half the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour
– Added a handful of dark chocolate chips

Katie was a guest on the Liz’s Healthy Table podcast this week, and we’re giving away a copy of PREP. So head on over to the Show Notes for this episode to enter the giveaway for a chance to win. And be sure to tune in to the podcast by clicking the Play button in the player below.

In Katie’s cookbook, she offers PRO TIPS like these:

– You can use this same batter to make banana muffins. Pour into greased or paper-lined muffin cups, filling them nearly to the top. Bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.

– Bananas that are slightly green or even bright yellow will certainly be sweet, but leave them a little longer to grow speckled with brown spots, and they will be that much sweeter. Browned bananas may not be what you want to slice onto your cereal, but they’re excellent for adding natural sweetness to breads, cakes, and breakfast smoothies.

Golden Banana Bread (with Dark Chocolate Chips)

 

Author: Katie Morford, author of PREP

Recipe type: Snack

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According to Katie, a good banana bread recipe is something you should hang on to for a very long time. It's the sort of thing that tastes good (sometimes even better) a day or two after you make it. Wrap it up to give to a friend (it travels well) or keep it for yourself to eat for breakfast, as a snack, or for dessert. This one is moist, sweet, and tender. It's made with walnuts, which you can easily leave out or replace with chocolate chips. Whatever you do when you make this bread, be sure to use ripe bananas and not to mix the batter too vigorously. That will make all the difference. * I made a few modifications: I used plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream; swapped the walnuts with pecans; used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat pastry flour; and I added a handful of dark chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 4 medium-size ripe bananas (they should be speckled with little brown dots)
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup canola oil
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Use nonstick cooking spray to generously grease the inside of a loaf pan.
2. Peel the bananas and break them up into a few pieces as you add them to a large bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat them into a gooey, thick mixture. It's okay if it's a little lumpy.
3. Add the eggs and beat until blended, about 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar, sugar, canola oil, sour cream, and vanilla and beat until blended and smooth, another 30 seconds or so.
4. Put the flour, baking soda, and salt into a separate medium bowl. Use a fork to stir everything together. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and beat just until blended and you no longer see little streaks of flour. Don't mix it too much the bread will be tough. Stir in the walnuts with a rubber spatula, just until combined.
5. Pour the batter into the bread pan, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to get every last bit.
6. Bake until the bread is firm when you touch it lightly and your finger doesn't leave an indent. You can double-check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center. It's done when you don't see any wet batter sticking to it. This will take about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and leave the bread to cool on the counter for 20 minutes. Run a little knife around the edges of the pan and invert the bread on the counter to dislodge it. Set it upright and leave it to cool another 30 minutes before cutting.

Notes

KEY EQUIPMENT: loaf pan that's roughly 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches, large bowl, electric mixer, medium bowl, rubber spatula

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Do you have a favorite banana bread recipe? What’s in it?