Banana bread is one of those delicious treats that I love to eat, but don’t often make since I never have ripe bananas on hand. This weekend when a craving for warm gooey banana bread struck and my fruit basket only yellow bananas, I was determined to make it happen. I had heard about ways to quicken the ripening process by storing bananas in a brown paper bag, but that would require waiting at least a day and I didn’t have that kind of patience! So, I poked around online for other ideas to speed up the process. I came across some recommendations to bake the bananas and decided to give it a whirl. I put my 3 bananas, still in the skin, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and baked them at 300 F for 35 minutes. The skin of the bananas ends up looking black and shiny. I let them cool for about 30 minutes and then cut off the tip and squeezed out the gooey middle. The baking process not only ripens the bananas, but the heat helps draw out the sugars and is perfect for making breads, muffins or cakes. This one little tip changed my banana baking world! The bread come out fantastic, and I do think the banana flavor is more pronounced than in past breads I have made. Plus, I will never have to wait to satisfy banana bread cravings again!
Here is what you’ll need:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Here’s how you do it:
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9x5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat the egg slightly and mix into creamed mixture with the bananas. Mix in sifted ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk and chocolate chips and spread into loaf
- Bake at 350 F for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean in the middle.
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