Today is a good day for several reasons:
1. It’s a Sunday.
2. It’s a sunny day.
3. I was actually productive yesterday.
4. I got to sleep in this morning.
5. You all have time to bake, because it’s the weekend.
6. I’m in the middle of eating a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread.
7. I’m going to tell you how to make it. What girl doesn’t love dessert?
I am personally an all-around dessert junkie (although I do specialize as a chocoholic). I believe that dessert is its own meal (to be enjoyed at any time of day, and before, after, or instead of a more traditional meal) and therefore deserves its own special section of my blog.
And so this update is part of a new series of Cooking Off Campus that I’m calling Sweet Sixteenth: every 16th of the month, I’ll give you a recipe for something sweet.
You’re welcome.
So get ready to shower your friends, classmates, and crushes with love and sugar. Take out that kiwi bird patterned apron your gay best friend gave you, make sure you have some flour and some sugar, run upstairs and ask your neighbors for a stick of butter, blast some music (sorry upstairs neighbors!), and then take over the kitchen.
There’s nothing like a perfectly baked dessert to make you feel:
1. Successful and accomplished
2. Loved by all those around you
3. Full of deliciousness
So I’ll stop talking now and just get on with the recipe…
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
1 stick of butter
2/3 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
3 or 4 bananas (very ripe)
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
chocolate chips
walnuts (optional)
Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Melt the butter in the microwave in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and the salt, and stir.
Add the bananas. Note that the level of ripeness is very important. Ideally, you want bananas that look much too ripe to eat: the peel will be all brown and they will be awkwardly mushy. However, as long as your bananas are covered in many, many brown spots, you should be okay. Mash them up, and stir them into the butter and sugar mixture.
Add the baking soda and the flour, and stir until well incorporated.
Add in lots of chocolate chips (I used a bit more than a cup), and walnuts if you like. (I personally am opposed to nuts in my dessert. Just chocolate, thank you very much.)
Grease a 9”x4” baking tin, or any other smaller baking tins you have. Fill with batter and bake. Baking time will depend on the size of the tin you use, but expect it to take around 30 minutes for mini tins and as much as an hour or more for a larger pan. Your bread should be lightly golden on top, and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf should come out clean.
Note that this bread can be made without chocolate chips (though I have no idea why anyone would not want chocolate chips).
Share & enjoy!