Banana Bread

If you're anything like me, your heart is in the right place when it comes to eating healthy.  I buy vegetables and fruit with the firm intention of eating them, but more often than not, they go bad and I end up feeling pretty silly.  When veggies start to turn dark, there's not much you can do with them.  But when fruit starts to turn dark and get spots, it's not always the end of the line- this is especially the case with bananas.

The darker the fruit, the better- so long as it isn't moldy or harboring banana spiders.  According to Alex, these little beasties are shaped like bananas and may or may not have bananas for legs.    


For my recipe, I used the following:


1 stick butter, softened
2 large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips


Butter and flour bread loaf pan, set aside.


Purée the bananas with the sour cream, eggs and vanilla.  Sift the dry ingredients together (using cake flour makes a very nice, very soft bread- I used whole wheat flour on a second banana bread run, and it was much more dense and not as sweet).  Mix the butter into the dry mix until you get a crumbly mixture, then add in the wet ingredients.  Mix until thoroughly blended, and then fold in the chocolate chips.  


Feel free to use more than one cup- serious chocoholics may prefer different types of chips, as well.


Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes.  Remember to turn the pan half-way through the bake time!


This bread/cake is amazing- and really hard to keep around.  It's great slathered with butter, cream cheese, or Nutella.