Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Chip, Walnut Banana Bread

I'm not a huge fan of bananas. I like a banana for about a day. The first day it's ripe and then I think it tastes like mush. The texture just grosses me out!! However, we get a lot of bananas in the weekly produce basket we get from a local co-op (we don't get to pick what's in the basket, we get what we get. I actually love this because the price is AMAZING and the variety of produce encourages me to try new recipes) Anyhoo, long story short, we end up with lots of overly ripe bananas and while I'm not a huge fan of bananas, I ADORE banana bread. It's such a perfect breakfast with coffee. If I'm feeling fancy, I add walnuts and chocolate chips. Chocolate-banana is one of my favorite flavors. When I was a kid, my mom use to take me to this little 50's style diner and we'd always get chocolate-banana milkshakes, yum! This banana bread recipe uses sour cream which is what I think makes it yummier than the typical recipe. I thought it was weird too when I first read about it, but once I tried it I was hooked and can't imagine making banana bread any other way. 

 Here are the ingredients, pretty basic stuff

• 1 1/2 sticks Butter
• 1-1/2 cup Sugar
• 3 whole Eggs
• 4 Mashed, REALLY Ripe Bananas
• 4 cups of Flour (I use 2 cups of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and 2 cups of plain ole' white flour)
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1-1/2 cup Sour Cream
• Bag of Chocolate Chips
• 1 cup Walnuts

First, set the oven to 350 and butter/flour the pan so the bread doesn't stick. This recipe makes two batches of the bread so prepare two pans if you have them.

Then cream together the butter and sugar. I like to use my hands. You can use a fancy mixer if you feel so inclined. Cream is just a fancy word for mix, in case you were wondering. 

Then mix in the egg. You can either add one egg at a time or do like I do!! Break the eggs into separate parts of the pan. This makes sure the egg gets evenly distributed.  

Now mix in your bananas. I put my bananas in the fridge after they get ripe so the peel turns black. This is good though!! I used about 4 bananas. Here they are, all nice and overripe! You must use overripe bananas to make bread. Why? I have no idea, just trust me.

Now mix the dry ingredients together in another bowl. If you have not tried this flour, you must!! I love it for making any sort of sweet pastry, cookie, or bread. It's all natural, whole wheat pastry flour from Bob's Red Mill, but when you eat the delicious things, you really can't tell it's whole wheat and it adds a nice texture and sweetness. I am obsessed with this flour!

Now, slowly add equal parts of the dry mixture and the sour cream to the liquid, making sure it all gets evenly mixed. 

Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts. So pretty!

Fill up bake pans halfway. The first time I made this, I filled the pan up all the way. Big mistake!! Not only did the bread take almost TWO hours to bake (sheesh), it was so huge and not really good for slices. Lesson learned :)

Bake for about an hour (my oven takes an hour and 5 minutes) or until toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy the bread warm with butter, delicious!!