banana bread

This is another fantastic recipe from Mrs. Weiner.  It seems like every time I go to Rachel’s house, her mother has two loaves of this cooling on the counter.  So when I had a craving for banana bread, I knew just who to ask for a recipe.  Since I am not so into walnuts, I left out the topping.  But I decided to throw in some chocolate chips– because, i mean, how good does that sound?  Interesting tip from Ina (I’ve been made fun of for always referring to the barefoot contessa as if we were actually friends)- toss chocolate chips in a pinch of flour- this keeps them from falling to the bottom of the batter.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 medium-size very ripe bananas, mashed
coarsely chopped walnuts for topping (optional)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

Cream butter and sugar and work together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.  Add to the creamed mixture until well combined. Fold in the mashed bananas. In a small bowl, toss choc chips with a big pinch of flour. Add choc chips into batter.  Pour the batter into the greased pan.  If desired, cover the top with chopped walnuts.  Bake 60 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then cut around the sides and remove the bread to a rack to cool completely.