Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Bread

...and I'm back. After taking a longer than expected break from blogging, I'm back, with the only banana bread recipe that you will ever need. The last few months have been pretty busy for me so blogging and baking have taken a back seat, but the other day I saw some overripe bananas on my counter and I knew what needed to be done.

I set out to find the best banana bread recipe and narrowed my search down to 2 recipes: This highly rated recipe from AllRecipes.com and a recipe from Baking Illustrated. As luck would have it, I found an awesome blog that made and compared to two recipes and the Baking Illustrated bread was the clear winner. After doing a bunch of reading about banana bread I learned a few important tips:

1. Use very, very, very ripe bananas. The ugly brown spotty ones.
2. If you're using walnuts, toast them before putting them into the bread. It gives them a great flavor.
3. Use yogurt over buttermilk or sour cream.
4. Melt the butter as opposed to creaming it with the sugar.

Overall, I was very impressed with this bread. It had great banana flavor, a perfect crumb, and lasted for days without getting too dry or soggy.

Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Bread
Recipe: Adapted from Baking Illustrated, seen here
Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (~3 bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs, beaten lightly
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (3/4 stick)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped coarse (optional)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease the bottom/sides of a 9 by 5 loaf pan. If your walnuts aren’t toasted, spread them on a baking sheet and toast them until fragrant for 5-10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside
3. Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in the nuts and chocolate. The batter should look thick and chunky. Scrape into the loaf pan.
4. Bake for about60 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes then eat! You can keep this bread for up to 3 days if properly wrapped in plastic wrap.