One Bowl Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Bananas are one of those fruits where you truly have a timeline. They can't stay in the refrigerator like apples, so you only have a few days to use them and then they go bad. The good news is, we've figured out lots of ways to bake with them!

Banana muffins, cinnamon streusel banana bread, or banana peanut butter breakfast bars are just a few of my favorites! Banana bread makes the house smell so amazing, I love baking it on a cool Fall day when you can enjoy the homey smells coming from the oven!

• It's a one bowl dream! No stand mixer or hand mixer is needed! Everything is made all in one bowl. Makes clean up a breeze!
• It's loaded with chocolate chips! The chocoholic in me is always so happy about recipes with tons of chocolate chips.
• Gives your old bananas a great use! We all have those bananas around that no one wants to eat. Why not make them into a delicious, chocolate filled bread?

One of the many great things about this recipe is that you probably already have these ingredients in your house!

• Bananas- yellow and spotty. Even almost all black is ok.
• Brown sugar- granulated sugar can be substituted instead but the brown sugar adds more flavor to the bread.
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda- to help the bread rise
• Butter- to give the bread moisture and keep it from drying out
• Vanilla- brightens up the taste of the chocolate in the bread

• Mixing Bowl
• Measuring Spoons
• Measuring Cups
• 9x5 Loaf Pan
• Parchment Paper
• Wire Baking Rack

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a loaf pan with cooking spray and line the pan with parchment paper. Allow some of the parchment paper to overhang the sides of the loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl, peel the bananas and mash them until there are no big chunks left.
4. Add the sugar and eggs to the bowl and mix well.
5. Place the butter and vanilla in the bowl and mix until all the ingredients are fully combined.
6. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the bowl. Mix well but do not overmix at this point. You want to incorporate all the flour, but you don't have to get all the lumps out.
7. Add the chocolate chips to the bowl and mix four more times to incorporate the chocolate chips.
8. Place the batter in the loaf pan, top with a few more chocolate chips, and bake for 50 minutes depending on your oven. After 50 minutes, check the bread for doneness by sticking a toothpick into the middle of the bread and taking it out. If there is no batter on the toothpick, the bread is done!
9. Take the bread out of the loaf pan by lifting the overhung pieces of parchment paper. Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack completely before cutting into it.

We all buy that bunch of bananas, and there are inevitably two or three left over that get too soft and brown to eat. I know my kids refuse to eat them unless they are perfectly yellow. A little brown and forget it!

To make banana bread though, those bananas are perfect! Brown, spotty, and a little mushy have the perfect amount of sweetness and are easily mashed, to make the most delicious banana bread.

• To ripen bananas faster than they normally would, place the bananas in a brown bag with an apple. The gases from the skin of the apple speeds up the ripening process. This way will take about a day to ripen.
• If you are in a pinch and want to ripen bananas quickly, preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the whole banana on a baking sheet and place them in the oven for 15 minutes. When the skins turn completely black they are ready! Carefully peel the banana and let it cool, then proceed with the recipe.
• Otherwise you can do what we do, leave them out on the counter until we forget about them and then make banana bread!

This bread is fantastic to make ahead of time! You can even double or triple this recipe and freeze the bread for another day.

To freeze the bread, allow it to completely cool and then wrap the bread in plastic wrap. Place the bread in a Ziploc bag and write the date on the Ziploc bag so you know how long the bread has been in there. Place the bread in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can probably leave it in there for a little longer, I've pulled bread out at five months and it was still amazing!

Another option is to cut the banana bread into slices and freeze the individual slices, that way you can grab a slice, throw it in the toaster oven, and head out the door on those busy mornings! To do this, slice the bread and place the slices on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once they are frozen, place the slices in a Ziploc bag and keep them in the freezer.

• Chocolate chips are a family favorite in my house, but if you don't have a chocoholic in your house, leave them out! Or you can substitute them for walnuts or raisins, or both!
• I know I'm always trying to sneak healthy ingredients into my kids meals, so if you're like me and want to make this bread a little more healthy if you're giving it to your kids, take out ¼ cup of all purpose flour and substitute ¼ cup of ground flaxseed meal.
• Maple syrup, coconut sugar, or honey can be used instead of the brown sugar.
• To make this bread dairy free, coconut oil or vegetable oil can be used instead of butter. Use dairy free chocolate chips as well.
• Take out ½ cup of chocolate chips and add ½ cup of peanut butter chips for a peanut butter chocolate banana bread. SO GOOD!

• Banana bread is known to stick to the sides of the loaf pan, so it's really important to grease it well and line the loaf pan with parchment paper. The parchment paper also makes it really easy to lift out the bread when it's done.
• If the top of the banana bread is browning too fast in the oven, take a piece of aluminum foil and tent it over the loaf pan. That will stop the browning on the top of the bread.
• Though it might be tempting to cut this bread as soon as you take it out of the oven, it's really important to let it cool. If you don't allow the bread to cool, it will likely fall apart when you cut into it.

After the banana bread has cooled down, place it in an airtight container and keep it on the counter. Do not place it in the refrigerator, as the cold air will dry out the banana bread and make it go bad faster. The amount of bananas and butter in this recipe should not produce a dried out bread.

Yes! Instead of adding the batter to the loaf pan, scoop the batter into a muffin tin lined with muffin liners. Bake the muffins for 20-22 minutes.

There could be a few reasons it sunk. It's really important not to overmix the batter. It's ok if there are lumps in the batter, but overmixing will turn the banana bread tough and build up the gluten. This will make the banana bread really heavy and it will have a hard time rising fully. Another reason is that the baking powder and baking soda were expired and therefore unable to make the bread rise fully. It's a best practice to check leavening agents expiration date before you start baking to avoid this mistake.

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