Chocolate Chip Banana Bread ~ dark chocolate chips give this classic quick bread a delicious dose of decadence!
Pretty soon I’ll be shoving my loaf pans and muffin tins to the back of the cupboard. It’s just the way it goes, my kitchen storage has to shuffle around a little bit to accommodate the needs of the coming season…that salad spinner takes up tons of real estate. I won’t need them for a while, anyway, at least until sometime in late August when I start cravingย gigantic blackberry muffins and my CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN BREAD. That pumpkin bread is one of my most cherished recipes, and the whole family gets so excited when I make it for the first time every fall. But it has a short season, I never make it after the new year. I don’t know why it never occurred to me to switch out the pumpkin for banana, this bread has the same great qualities of the original, butย it’s so much more appropriate for March. And the nice thing about a tried and true recipe is there’s no guesswork. Even though I’ve never made this particular version before, I know it will be perfect.
And it is. I threw together the dry ingredients last night, and left everything on the kitchen counter, waiting for me this morning. I preheated the oven while my first cup of coffee sputtered out of the VERISMO. The is the kind of recipe that you can mix from start to finish with nothing more than a fork. This is the classic kind of banana bread your mom or grandma made, only this one has been upgraded with dark chocolate chips.
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
dry ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a heaping 1/2 cup rough chopped walnuts
- 1 cup chocolate chips
wet ingredients
- 1 cup well mashed banana, about 2 bananas, but be sure to measure with a dry cup measure
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Set the oven to 350F
- Whisk the dry ingredients together, making sure to smooth out any lumps from the brown sugar.
- Whisk together the wet ingredients, making sure to beat everything well.
- Combine the wet ingredients with the dry, and mix until everything is well combined. Don't over beat.
- Turn the batter into a greased 9x5 loaf pan. I like to line the pan with one sheet of parchment paper with overlapping edges so I can easily lift the bread out to cool and slice.
- Bake for about 1 hour, or until it is risen, browned, and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it.
- If you can stand it, let the bread cool a little before cutting into thick slices.
You can’t go wrong with this, it’s got a strong banana flavor, crunch from the walnuts, and a touch of decadence in the form of dark chocolate chips. It’s super moist and keeps and freezes well.
What are you going to do with your extra hour of sunlight today?
This one looks good too, but your chocolate chip pumpkin bread is still my daughters favorite! I’ll probably even make it for her in May when she’s home from school!
I agree with your comment about liking the shorter days…I know it’s crazy, but I like candlelight and it’s just cozier. But I also agree that an extra hour of daylight means you can actually take photographs past 4pm!!
I sent that pumpkin bread to both daughters in care packages every fall at college, and all their friends gobbled it up. I especially love the texture of it, and I’m racking my brains for another option besides banana to try.
Your photo has me drooling on the keyboard, Sue. Looks moist and chocolatey…love that you can freeze. I make sweet breads in small loaf pans for that very reason.
Thanks Barb, and yes, moist sweet breads like this don’t seem to suffer in the least by being frozen.
Gorgeous loaf! I do tend to switch out the items on my counter throughout the seasons, without even realizing it! Personally, I would happily eat a pumpkin cake year-round but somehow banana does seem more seasonal at the moment.
I notice the ice cream machine snuck its way onto my counter recently and I haven’t had the heart to put it away ๐
For some reason my blog roll shows the last post from you as two months ago, just about the time I took an unplanned hiatus from the blog world. I thought you dropped off too and happy I decided to double check …
Oh banana bread, one of my very favorites and I’d sure like a slice this moment with my tea! Some day the technology will be such that I can actually have what looks so real on my screen. Yum.
I’m SO sorry about the glitch in my feed, I’m trying to get it sorted out, but I’m so glad you re-discovered me!
What a beautiful combination! Nice pics!
I’m so excited for the “extra” hour! I’m going to use it to run and take pictures. Only that did not happen today (well, not to the extent I would have liked) because I failed to go to bed on time and then had to be up super early.
Anyways, when I got home from work I took a nice nap. Now I wish I had this bread for a cozy post-nap snack.
I’m one of the weirdos who loves it when it gets dark early, so I’m never super excited about the longer days, but, it is sooo much better for taking pictures of food, I will say that.
I love how you talked about the hour of sunlight gained instead of the hour of sleep that was lost!! My daughter is the acknowledged banana bread expert in our house but I think I’ll challenge her with this one.
I bet her recipe doesn’t have chocolate chips…in my book that means you’ll ipso facto win the challenge!
well, I have no idea what happened but your website dropped from my blog feed and I lost you for a month or two… thought you’d stopped blogging!… I have SO much to catch up on, starting with this stunning loaf… adore banana bread and make it often but not like this so I must give this recipe a whirl!
Oh I need to put the word out, somehow part of my feed got lost, I’m glad you mentioned that Dom, nice to see you back!
PS I love how your recipes look on your blog:)
I have done some reorganizing lately too..never hurts:)
This looks fabulous..and my kidlets like banana breads..I can only imagine w/ the chips..
Pumpkin and banana breads are such great snacks for kids, and the chocolate chips are a nice perk ๐