When I was making this banana bread on the weekend, it made the whole house smell amazing. It brought back memories of coming home from school and finding a fresh loaf on the kitchen counter. My mom would cut us nice big thick slices and we’d slather them with butter. Garrett and I are pretty good about eating up our bananas before they get too ripe, so I don’t think I’ve made banana bread in years.
We had three bananas that were really close to being too ripe and we purposely laid off of eating them just so I could make this treat. Then I spotted half a bag of dark chocolate chips in the cupboard and I knew exactly how I wanted to liven up one of my childhood favourites. You better believe I still slathered the butter on that first slice – still warm out of the oven.
What you’ll need:
- 1-3/4 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large bananas)
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9″ x 5″ metal loaf pan.
Mash the bananas with a fork.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the melted butter and sugar until blended. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix well. On low speed, stir in flour mixture until just incorporated. Do not over mix.
Stir in the dark chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the loaf cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
