I’m generally not a fan of bananas eaten anything other than in vivo, ie., peeled and popped into the mouth, fresh but not too ripe. I don’t like them in ice cream, oatmeal, cereal, cakes or even in fruit salads. Certain foods, in my opinion, just need to be enjoyed one-on-one, you know?
But last week, in my mother-in-law’s kitchen, a few over-ripe bananas were calling out not to be wasted, so my daughter and I decided to make banana bread. I figured that since others were there with us that evening, I would be under no obligation to eat the thing I was making, and my daughter and I would have a little kitchen fun, which we did.
To my surprise, I loved this bread! Perhaps it was the scattered chocolate, or the lack of large banana pieces to turn me off. Or the use of melted butter rather than oil or room temp butter.
Whatever.
This bread is moist, flavorful and keeps well in the fridge. It’s delicious eaten warm or even better, toasted and topped with a schmear of cream cheese.
Enjoy!
Banana Bread
Ingredients
- softened butter for greasing the pan
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 medium, very ripe bananas
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 ounces good dark chocolate, shaved or chopped into irregular sized small piece
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F with rack on bottom third of the oven. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8×5-inch loaf pan, then line with parchment paper, letting the excess hang over the long sides, and lightly grease the paper too.
- Whisk melted butter and sugar in a medium sized bowl. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Whisk in milk and vanilla. Peel the bananas, slice and add them to the bowl, mashing them in with a fork or pastry blender, leaving pieces as small or large as you like (I like them small and few in number.) If you want an entirely smooth batter, mash the bananas separately, then add to the batter.
- Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl, then gently fold them into the batter using a rubber spatula just till combined. Do not over-mix. Fold in chocolate pieces.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 50-65 minutes, checking with a toothpick or cake tester starting at around 50 minutes (Mine took 60 minutes, and could have gone another 5 minutes without harm.). This is a very moist cake, more likely to under- than over-bake.
- Cool bread in the pan on a wire rack for a least 10 minutes before removing from pan, then cool another 10 minutes before slicing.
