The first thing I ever made completely by myself (meaning my mom wasn’t allowed to help beyond answering the occasional question) was a chocolate chip banana bread. My high school sweetheart was a fan of the chocolate and banana combo and my mom made a mean chocolate chip banana muffin. I took her recipe and put all the dough in a loaf pan instead of a muffin pan.
For some reason I felt a single loaf was more romantic than a pile of muffins? Or something? I had this image in my head of a fresh loaf of bread in a basket. Why that couldn’t be muffins in a basket, I’m not entirely sure. But loaf. HAD to be loaf.
This switch to loaf made everything more stressful. If I had muffins I could have tested one with my boyfriend being none the wiser. With a loaf, stealing a slice would have been somewhat obvious.
So I blindly handed over my first baking attempt for someone else to consume.
He told me he liked it, but I had convinced myself that he would say that no matter what since he was obligated to as my significant other. I determined I couldn’t take the stress and decided I should put the idea of me baking away forever.
Well, there’s a lot of things you’re wrong about yourself when you’re a teenager. A lot.
This banana bread is not that muffin turned banana bread. I think I might have a mental block against the other bread because I was never 100% sure that it came out well. I have a suspicion this newer one is in fact better, either due to my extra 8 years of baking experience, or the fact that it has six bananas in it.
SIX bananas. I can barely fit six bananas in a loaf pan, but they somehow fit into a loaf of bread.
Some banana breads taste like a banana flavoured quick bread. This one tastes more like bananas turned into a quick bread texture. So be prepared for some heavy bread.
If you need chocolate with your banana, feel free to add a cup of chocolate chips to the recipe. Or you could just do what I do…
Aww.. yeah. Nutella makes everything better.
Banana Banana Bread
Adapted from AllRecipes.com
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 6 mashed medium overripe bananas
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan. (My 9×5 pan is currently scratched out of commission and so I used two 8×5 pans which you can also do, but I prefer the one big 9×5 loaf.)
- In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten, do not over-mix. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
Bread tastes even better the next day. To store, simply wait for it to cool completely and then wrap in plastic wrap.
