It's happened again! I bought a bunch of bananas for my husband (since, if you know me, you know that bananas are my least favorite fruit), but he kept forgetting to eat them, so now I have a bunch of brown bananas, just sitting there, mocking me. What to do? I don't want to waste them, and the chickens have already been out grazing on grass and weeds in the yard, so they've eaten their fill...plus, cleaning mashed bananas out of their run and coop sounds like a horribly messy afternoon.
What better way to use those brown bananas than making a couple loaves of banana chocolate chip bread? Then I can place the peels in my compost bin and reap the benefits from those nutrients after they turn into the perfect compost to help my veggie garden grow and produce a great crop.
Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
4 bananas
4 beaten eggs
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of two 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pans.
2) In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Make a little well in the center of the dry ingredients.
3) In another bowl, mash the bananas with a potato masher, wooden spoon, or a fork. Then mix in the eggs, both sugars, canola oil, and vanilla. Mix well.
4) Next, pour the banana mixture into the well you made in the center of the dry ingredients. Mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened. (The batter will be lumpy. Do not over-mix or you could make the bread too tough).
5) Fold in the chocolate chips. Then, pour half of the batter into one loaf pan, and half into the other. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center of the loaves comes out clean.
6) Cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Then, remove the loaves from their pans and cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, the loaves can be placed in large freezer bags and frozen for several months. Store any thawed loaves in the refrigerator in airtight containers or bags to prevent them from getting moldy.
Enjoy!
~Jenn
