Yum: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I woke up this morning and thought, "Well, I think I'll bake something today." I do that a lot. I spent the entire last semester of school baking nearly every day. I'm not kidding. I mean cookies, cakes, pies, muffins. You name it, I was baking it. I swear my roommates hated me, but my boyfriend loved me. This summer I've been so busy, plus it's been like ungodly hot and, really, who wants to be in the kitchen then? Not I.

But today was just an exception. I walked into the kitchen and there were two ripe bananas sitting on the counter and I just thought, "Alright, chocolate chip banana bread it is." And I am so excited. This is the first recipe I've come up with all on my own! No, seriously, this is a big moment. Yes I looked at a million recipes first, but there wasn't one that I just loved so I tweaked and pulled bits and pieces of others to make this all my own. And I feel like a champ. I tasted quite a bit along the way and the batter was absolutely scrumptious. Seriously it's amazing. And the smell while it was baking. Oh my gosh absolutely decadent. I feel like a goddess.It turned out wonderfully chocolatey, which I love. But if you wanted to tone down on the chocolate, just decrease the chocolate chips at your own discretion. I baked this today around one, and the thing is already down to one piece left. (And I only had a piece and a half! Swear!) This was a huge hit! I wholeheartedly suggest serving it with a big glass of ice cold milk. Trust me.

So here it is! My first totally mostly original...
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe:


Ingredients
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon (makes a HUGE difference!)
2 Large Ripe Bananas (mashed)
2 Eggs (lightly beaten)
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1 Tbsp Chocolate Chips & Pinch of Powdered Sugar (to drizzle and top!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.

Start by mixing together all the dry ingredients. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a medium sized mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl mash together 2 large ripe bananas (leaving them a little chunky to add that thick banana bread texture to the loaf.)

Top the mashed bananas with vanilla extract, then add vegetable oil and eggs. Slowly stir in your dry ingredients  until just combined. Be careful not to over-mix! Then stir in chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into greased loaf pan. The only difficulty was, concocting this thing on my own I wasn't exactly sure how long to bake it. Most banana breads cook anywhere from 50-75 minutes, so it was tough. I wanted mine to be super moist, but not mushy and undercooked. So I watched it like a hawk, and I think my exact cooking time was like 56 minutes. (You can always use a toothpick to test the consistency.)

Allow the bread to cool in the loaf pan for about ten minutes after removing it from the oven before transferring it onto a serving dish.

Once mine had cooled off a little I decided to decorate it a little bit. I melted a heaping tablespoon of chocolate chips in a ziplock bag in the microwave. I snipped the edge off the bag and drizzled a little on top of the loaf to make it extra chocolatey. (I'm definitely no artist so there's better chocolatey drizzle creative potential here than I managed to tap into!)

I finished by sprinkling a pinch of powdered sugar over the chocolate drizzle. And here you have the end product!

Enjoy!

Nat