Show you care; say it with love.
What I mean is that one of the best ways to show love to someone is through food that you make. It’s amazing what something homemade, made with love, can do for someone; how it can lift their day and make them feel better. And you too in the process.
As always with dear friends, this was never more true than this past Sunday when I went to visit very dear friends, Eve, Mike, and Wally. We already had plans to get together that day for around the lunch/brunch time but no real firm plans as to what we would actually do. Sadly a lot changed Saturday morning when I found out that Mike’s grandpa had passed away the day before. They still wanted to get together so plans got set really fast that we would stay in at their place and just chill. Mike loves banana desserts and Eve asked that I make something to make him feel better, possibly banana ice cream since we had just bought the new ice cream machine last week. I remembered he really liked the banana bread I make and he really loved it when I put in chocolate chips. How could I not make Chocolate Chip Banana Bread? The recipe below is to die for, try it see for yourself … I dare you. 🙂
Now that the culinary train had left the station I started thinking about what else we could have that would be easy to prepare and could be cooked at the time as other things so I could maximize a short window of cooking time. In addition to Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, I made: Cheater Pulled Pork, Italian Basil Meatballs, and Peach Dumplings that were inspired by The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Ree Drummond. Those recipes will be posted soon. For now you get Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
I hope you’ll make this. Not only does it have great natural banana flavor and chocolate chips, I sprinkle raw sugar, or turbinado sugar, all over the top of the cake before putting it into the oven. When baked this creates a delicious sugar crust that takes the bread over the top.
- 1 stick unsweetened butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¼ - ½ cup raw or turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 350º F.
- Butter, or use cooking spray, on a standard 9” x 5” x 3” loaf pan. You can also use smaller loaf pans.
- With an electric hand mixer, or a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar well, until light and fluffly. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until well incorporated.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients until well combined. Mix together with the butter/sugar/egg mixture; blend well.
- Add the mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla; stir well.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir just until combined, don’t over work the batter. The goal is to get them evenly distributed throughout the batter without over doing it.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan, sprinkle entire top with raw or turbinado sugar. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool on a rack in the pan for 10-15 minutes and then either turn out onto rack to finish cooling, or slice and serve.