I love banana bread, but more importantly, I love good banana bread. I like it to be dense and moist. I’m not too picky on the nuts vs. no nuts debate. I like them both.
Ole considers himself a banana bread “purist.” He believes it’s not true banana bread unless there are walnuts involved. I have one of those recipes. This is not it. This recipe is all about the marriage of the banana with the chocolate chip. It’s like grocery store muffins…except there are real bananas and no imitation extract in this one and they taste good.
This has been one of my favorite banana breads for years. It fulfills all my grocery store muffin urges, and the mini loaves make a fantastic breakfast, free from complaining. It also uses the bananas I neglected to feed my children because I forgot about them and left them to sit all weekend and brown while we went on vacation. Yes, those bananas.
One of my favorite things about quick breads is the ability to just dump ingredients into a mixer and turn it on. First the butter and sugar, then the eggs and sour cream and bananas. Ignore that there are four eggs in the bowl. I doubled the recipe because I had four sad bananas.
Be sure to let a kid or two help and spill flour on the counter. Then laugh when they lick it with their tiny fingers.
It’s a party in there.
And when the party’s over, fill up one of these. You could do muffins too, but I prefer the personal loaves. It’s like my own special banana bread.
And you can fill a loaf pan too. This recipe will actually make 2 loaves or 18 regular-sized muffins.
Take them out when the tops start browning. I take muffins and mini loaves out before they get very dark because they continue baking in the pan and I don’t want to end up with dry banana bread.
I held the pan up by the window to get the sink light because the compact fluorescent blue on the overhead was not flattering to the banana bread, and there was no natural light to be had by the time they came out of the oven.
See how the large one is darker? Not much, just an even brown across the top.
Store wrapped in plastic wrap or in an air-tight container.
adapted from Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking
Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick / 1/2 cup softened butter
2 medium-sized ripe (or overripe) bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour bottoms of loaf pans. Choose two 8×4 loaves or 18 regular muffins or 8 mini loaves approximately 3 inches wide.
Beat softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add sour cream, eggs and bananas and mix until everything is incorporated. Slowly stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake on center rack at 350º 55 minutes for a loaf pan, 25-30 minutes for muffins or mini loaves until toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool at least 20 minutes before removing from pan to avoid tearing on the bottom side. Cool completely prior to packaging.
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Solid recipe. I’m allergic to nuts, so I like the idea of chocolate chips. I don’t cook, but I’ll mos-def give this recipe to someone to make for me.
These have been a 2x hit at our house so far. Half the batch is straight up banana, with an added crumbly topping – for my soulmate; and half the batch is chocolate chipped goodness, for me. I’ve only done muffins, and use a 1/4 c. sour cream and a 1/4 c. yogurt; also 1 c. all-purpose flour and 1 c. whole wheat flour. Pretty delicious way to use the neglected bananas. This last time I also threw in some fresh blueberries (in the plain – sans chocolate chips) and they were a solid win. Especially for a husband who “doesn’t like breakfast”.
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