Mom’s Chocolatey Banana Bread

Whenever we have over-ripe bananas, I make banana bread. Which means we eat it a lot. Banana bread is one of our most-often breakfast foods.

My mom made banana bread a lot too when we were growing up and I always loved it. I have tried many, many banana bread recipes. Some of my very favorites come from Cooking Light. Today my daughter asked me to make that one “I used to make” … but I wanted to try this Nutella Swirled Banana Bread recipe I’d seen, so we compromised. We made the old original recipe I had cut from a Cooking Light magazine ages ago and put in my “clipped recipe” book (an old magnetic photo album transformed into a recipe book) and we got out lots of mini bread pans, two of which got the Nutella swirl, and the rest got chocolate chips. Because we ALWAYS put chocolate chips in our banana bread.

Mom’s Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Adapted from Cooking Light. I find the original recipe a little too sweet and a little dry. Plus I like to use whole wheat flour and flax meal in my banana bread to give it more fiber and omega-3’s. I also find the whole wheat flour makes baked goods moister and more flavorful.

Ingredients:

Wet ingredients

• 3 – 4 over-ripe bananas (about 1 2/3 c., if you’re measuring … I never do)
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. light butter
• 1/4 c. skim milk
• 6 T. lowfat sour cream
• 2 egg whites (or 1 egg)

• 1 c. flour
• 3/4 c. white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c. flax meal
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips (use a really good quality chip like Ghirardelli … trust me, it’s SO worth it!)
• Walnuts, toasted and chopped (toasting brings out the flavor of the nut so you can use fewer nuts but still get the flavor
• Nutella if you are going to make the Nutella-swirl version

Directions:

1. Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix them all together.
2. Measure in the dry ingredients. Stir it all together.
3. Coat your bread pan(s) with cooking spray. This recipe makes one regular-sized loaf or several mini-loaves.
• If you want chocolate chip banana bread, stir the chips (and nuts, if you’re using them) into the batter, then pour into the pan(s).
• For Nutella swirl bread, put some of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in some Nutella till you’ve got a good chocolatey looking batter. Pour the regular banana bread batter into the pan, then pour in the Nutella-infused batter on top. Swirl with a knife.
4. Bake at 350 degrees until the loaf is golden brown and springs back when you touch it in the middle. You can also test it with a knife–if the knife comes out clean (besides the melted chocolate chips), it’s done. One loaf will take about 1 hour 10 minutes. Mini-loaves don’t take as long. Test them after 20 – 30 minutes.

Here are a few of my other favorite banana bread recipes:

• Eileen’s Best Banana Bread
• Peanut Butter Banana Bread (I make it without the glaze … DON’T add chocolate chips to this one! You would think chocolate chips would be perfect with it, but I found they just didn’t go …)
• Marbled Banana Bread (no need for chocolate chips here, there’s a lovely chocolate swirl)

What’s your favorite recipe for banana bread?