Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

From chimpanzees to your standard everyday homosapien, everybody seems to love banana bread. For those OCD bakers out there like me who like to have a several  kinds of banana bread recipes  to serve separate cravings (i.e. ones with walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips, oats, peanut butter, vegan, shortening, butterey ones, etc. etc. etc.) in total I have 11 banana bread recipes.  It may seem excessive, but one does not find gold by dipping their hand in the stream, right? ( I totally made that saying up just now, but it sounds like an adage from long ago from the Gold Rush or something, eh?) I mean to say, it takes a lot of trail and error to come up with a sincerely amazing recipe, and this one seems to always get a big thumbs up.

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

-3 ½ cup flour

-2 t. Baking soda

-½ t. Cinnamon

-½ t. Salt

-4 eggs at room temp for 30 minutes

-2 1/3 cup brown sugar

-1 cup canola oil

-3 cups mashed , overly ripe bananas

-¼ cup sour cream or crème fraiche

-1 cup walnuts, toasted in oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees then chopped fine.

-1 cup chocolate chips

Directions: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt together in medium bowl and whisk well. In a standing mixer or with a hand mixer with paddle attachment, mix the eggs and brown sugar for ten minutes ( I know it’s long, but it’s worth it I swear!!) until the mixture becomes white. Add canola oil, bananas, sour cream and mix until incorporated. Add flour mixture while mixing on low speed, and incorporate. Fold in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. In a greased loaf pan or mini loaf pans, scrape batter in and bake for 40-45 minutes for a loaf pan, 30-35 minutes for minis. All ovens are different, so you’ll want to start checking it depending on the pan and if it’s getting too brown on top without being done cooking, place aluminum foil on top. Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This recipe makes about 3  9 inch loaves, or a dozen medium sized muffins and a 9 inch loaf, which is what I made. It's nice to make the loaves if you want to give them away or freeze them  for later. I like the muffin sized ones for a quick snack on the run.

They turned out a lovely golden brown. I used milk chocolate chips in this batch, but dark, white or even butterscotch are good. Using sour cream and beating the eggs for so long really gives it a light texture.

Go ahead, take a bite! Every time I make this recipe I have to copy it for at least 2 people. And it's always fun to make a new rendition of an old classic. Enjoy!