Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Let’s add to the heading, LOTS of chocolate chips! It has been ages since I have made this. We had a big bunch of bananas that were starting to do what bananas do when you know they need to be eaten that day. So I pulled a recipe from the archives and whipped up a batch. I like making it in a pan so it looks more like dessert than a loaf of bread. Totally personal preference. This will absolutely work in loaf form too. One addition to the below recipe, I sprinkled Maldon sea salt lightly over the top instead of adding the salt into the mix. I like the feel of getting a small flake of the salt when taking a bite. It is very subtle, but I like the contrast with the sweet. This fluted ceramic dish bumping up the specialness of the dessert so the whole thing could be brought right to the table to be served.

Turn oven on to 325 degrees and it will heat up while you get this put together. Mush up 3 to 4 ripe bananas in a good sized mixing bowl. To that add one egg, a cup of white sugar, and a 1/4 of a cup (which is half a stick) melted butter and a good splash or two of vanilla extract. We are Watkins fans, selling it at the shop since we first opened. Set aside. In another bowl, put in 1 and a 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour with a teaspoon of baking soda and a big pinch of salt. (here is where you would omit the salt if you want to use flake sea salt on top) Mix those 3 dry ingredients together. Now slowly mix the dry mixture into the banana mixer until fully incorporated. My goal was to do this by hand and not a mixer as I was wanting this to be as simple as possible. Then mix in a bag (typically around 11 ounces) of the best milk chocolate chips you can get your hands on. I am a big fan of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. It is ready to be put into a butter greased pan. Use whatever you have/like. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!