Tanya's Pick: Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I know that banana bread is sort of a no-brainer. Still,I had to post this recipe because:

1. I always have all of these ingredients in my pantry

2. It has two of my favorite food: bananas and chocolate

3. It's sometimes hard to get a moist banana bread, and this one is SO moist and delicious!

4. Not only is it one of my favorites, but we all love it. That's rare in this house since we tend to have very different taste.

One of the keys to good banana bread is to have really overripe bananas. I also like to use miniature chocolate chips instead of the regular and add walnuts, but since this is part of my pantry challenge and I didn't have any of either, this is what I went with:

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients:
2-1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 t. baking soda
1/2 c. sour cream
2 c. banana pulp
1 c. butter, room temperature
3 c. flour
2 t. vanilla extract
2 T. lemon juice
2 c. miniature chocolate chips (regular okay also)
1 c. finely chopped nuts

In an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time:


In a seperate bowl, combine baking soda and flour. Slowly stir into the butter mixture with a spoon until well incorporated. It will look thick like this:



In a seperate bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a potato masher:



Add the sour cream:


Back to the electric mixer, incorporate the banana mix into the dough mixture, just until well combined. Stir in nuts. Grease 2 large or 6 small bread pans. Fill the pan about 1/4 full of the batter. Add half of the chocolate chips on top of the batter:



Add more batter on top of that until the bread pan is 3/4 full. Add the remaining chips to the top. Take a butter knife and swirl it in a zig-zag across the pan to mix in the nuts evenly. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes clean. Cover with foil the last 15 minutes so the tops don't get too brown. Let cool and eat.



This recipe can easily be made without the chocolate chips. Just don't add them. Rich prefers without, so I make him a plain loaf. It's just as delicious.