Banana Bread

Some notes on bananas… I hardly ever eat bananas yet I seem to buy them regularly. This is because bananas have a secret… locked deep inside their stringy yellow slippery peel lies a delightful, mushy, surprise. Bananas don’t go bad. It’s true. I wouldn’t lie to you. Go buy bananas. Put them on the counter, be artistic, and tell people it’s a ‘still-life’. Now ignore them for a few days. Let the fruit flies collect, let the peel turn spotty and brown. Once the banana is almost totally covered in brown spots, toss that bitch in the freezer. Unfortunately, this secret means you can’t get all of the following ingredients at the grocery store, you have to do that freezing prep. Regular, fresh bananas won’t do the trick. They just aren’t sweet enough. So get your bananas ripe and frozen (you’ll need about 4) and then read on…

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups White Sugar
  • ½ cups Vegetable Oil
  • 2 whole Eggs
  • 2 ⅔ cups Flour
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 ½ teaspoon Salt
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 2 cups Mashed, frozen Banana1
  • 1 cup Chocolate Chips
  1. Total prep time: 20 mins
  2. Total cook time: 55 minutes

First things first, take your bananas out of the freezer, get them defrosting ASAP. You can also speed up this process by cutting off the tip and then putting them in the microwave for 30 seconds. The peel should come off pretty easily, you might need some help from a paring knife. Make sure you get rid of all the stringy bits. Put the bananas in a glass measuring cup and mash with a fork. You can make it super smooth or leave it a bit lumpy. I like it lumpy because that translates into the bread and you get surprise banana lumps. Who doesn’t love a banana lump? Once it’s mashed, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil, and eggs.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Into the large bowl, alternate adding milk and dry ingredients (I go with 3 additions). Mix until just combined, that is the batter is smooth but you haven’t whipped the crap out of it. Over-mixing will make the dough tough and poopy2.

Add bananas and chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350F, spray 3 loaf pans (medium, 4.5″x 8.5″) with cooking spray (be generous). Divide dough evenly. Bake all 3 loaves together for 55 minutes, rotating as needed3. Bread is done when a toothpick, inserted in the middle of the loaf, comes out clean, not gooey. Let bread cool in pans for 15 minutes. Run a knife along the edges of the bread, flip the pan over and give it a good smack. Some of the chocolate chips will likely stick so you might need to be a bit aggressive but try to be gentle.

Look!

bananabread

Some suggestions!

This bread is great for breakfast with butter. This bread is also good for dessert with whipped cream and strawberries. This bread is also good any time of the day. Trust me, it’s super. Here’s a little bonus… make the 3 loaves and then FREEZE one, it freezes really well in a Ziploc bag.

Notes:
1. 2 cups bananas = about 4 bananas.

2. The story of ‘poopy’: when I was growing up, my mom made a tonne of chocolate chip cookies. She used the recipe from the back of the chipits package, which she had taped to a recipe card. This recipe called for shortening but my mom always used butter. Scrawled in my dad’s block printing on the bottom of the recipe card: “don’t use shortening, tastes poopy.” Yep, direct quote, my dad.
3. HALF of this recipe makes 12 regular muffins, bake for 20-25 minutes in a sprayed or lined muffin tin.

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5 Responses to Banana Bread

  1. Nikki says:

    Looks omnomnomnom!

  2. Richard winograd says:

    Awwwwww I miss you

  3. Kevin says:

    I’ve made these as muffins a couple times, so delicious!!

    I have noticed that if you make them as muffins and do half the recipe the consistency is less thick and more like muffin batter. I know this doesn’t make any sense, because you aren’t changing the ratios, but thats what I’ve observed, no lies.

  4. Kevin says:

    oh, and I never use the salt.

  5. Jocelyn Rosen says:

    Hi Erica
    Just found your “Messy Kitchen”, nothing messy about it as far as I can see! Congrats on putting this together. Am looking forward to adding a few of your recipes to our repertoire. Signed, Caitie’s mom

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