Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

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One of my favorite things about bananas, besides the delicious texture they add to smoothies, is that unlike most foods, when bananas start to go bad all hope is not lost. Rather, you can revitalize those “these are so soft they are gross”, brown bananas into delicious banana bread!

The secret to creating a moist banana bread, or any other cake bread, without crossing over into the “gummy” category is to add your sugar to the wet ingredients to help soak up some of that extra moisture.

With this recipe I took an additional step to prepare the ripened bananas in a way that would extract more flavor, thus enhancing the overall taste of the bread! 

Banana Bread

Prep time:

Bake time:

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 1/2 cup + 1 teaspoon brown sugar, packed
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 Tablespoons Greek yogurt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, spray with nonstick spray, and set aside.
  2. Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil. Peel the bananas and place on the foil.
  3. Sprinkle the bananas with the 1 teaspoon brown sugar, and bake bananas for 20 minutes.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
  5. In a large bowl, mash the cooked bananas until relatively smooth. Stir in the 1/2 cup brown sugar and greek yogurt until well combined.
  6. Stir in the eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.
  7. Sprinkle half of the dry ingredients onto the wet ingredients. Gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. Repeat this step with the remaining dry ingredients.
  8. Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
  9. Transfer the batter to your lined load pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes. When the bread is done, a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean, and when you press your finger on the loaf the bread should spring back and not leave a dent.
  10. Allow the loaf to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack.