Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

 

My work day begins at 7:00am. Yawn.  That means that I drag myself out of bed in the early hours of the morning-- and I'm not much of a morning person.  I don't wake up grumpy, but I'm not very talkative until I've showered, dressed, styled my hair and put on my makeup. I leave myself just enough time to assemble my lunch tote, fill my travel coffee mug and slather my toast with peanut butter and homemade jam.  Then I hit the road at 6:15am for my commute to my job.

Four hours later, my stomach is growling and I need a power snack.  Bananas are my favorite on-the-go way to appease my now empty stomach.  I can only buy them a few at a time, because once my bananas cross over that just-ripe stage, and the sugar spots start to show up-- I'm out.  I usually toss them into my freezer to make healthy smoothies.  On the weekends, that is. I never have enough time to make them on work mornings, per my first paragraph of this post.

I don't know when I suddenly decided that I didn't like banana bread.  It doesn't make sense, because I used to make a really good banana bread muffin recipe man years ago (and posted here).  NOTE: I should make those again, and update with newer pictures. Maybe I've just had dry and tasteless banana bread that left a bad food memory.   Whatever it is, this recipe changed my way of thinking.

Once again, I found that I had three bananas that had reached that use-it-or-lose-it stage, and there are only so many bananas I can store in my freezer.  How could I make banana bread more interesting, I thought to myself. Aha! Who doesn't love chocolate? So I did a little internet research for a banana bread recipes that uses chocolate.  Bingo.   My two favorite baking ingredients, that I can trust will yield a very moist cake are buttermilk or sour cream. When I saw that sour cream was a key ingredient, I was sold.

TIP: I like using my potato ricer to mash ripe bananas (it's also a great way to squeeze out excess water from spinach).  

As with most banana bread recipes, this one is super simple to make.  I did cream the butter and sugar together for a good four minutes, and I really do think that makes a difference in texture.   Adding chocolate chips to this banana bread should be most excellent.  The dough is really, really good! Usually, I invite my husband to lick the spatula.  (I might have left him out, this time. Shhhh.)

My bread took just under one hour and ten minutes. It's really important to do the toothpick test. 

The aroma of chocolate is irresistible. It was hard to wait for the bread to cool completely, but I did. 

This bread is super, super moist. I could hardly wait to taste this!

TASTING NOTES:  My faith in banana bread has been restored.  The balance of chocolate to banana is spot on.  The cake was very tender. I didn't get any tartness from the sour cream, but I do credit that the sour cream made the bread really moist.  There were just enough chocolate chips to say "hello, don't I taste good"?  But there weren't too many chips to overpower the banana flavor.   This is really, REALLY good banana bread!

Remember how I said bananas are one of my favorite power snacks?  That was my rational for packing a slice of this banana power snack, encased in chocolate.  I enjoyed this recipe so much that I've made it twice. So, I guess I don't dislike banana bread, after all! I just needed to make one that wasn't dry and boring.  I shall make this recipe again-- maybe even adapt them as muffins.  

Recipe source: Once Upon A Chef.

Keep scrolling down for a printable recipe.