Recipe: Old-School Peanut Butter and Chocolate Banana Bread
Summary: The best classic, simple banana bread is married with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for a snack or dessert that pleases everyone. Let the bananas get black skinned for supreme, deep banana flavor.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (can use half canola and half mildest flavored olive oil)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas [1] (about 3 medium) *see banana hint below
- 1/3 cup Daisy Light Sour Cream (regular version is fine, or can even use Greek yogurt)
[2]2 teaspoons vanilla extract- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons ground flax (optional)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 (.75-ounce) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped in a small dice
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350F degrees. Mist bottom of a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan (or 3 mini loaf pans) with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In large bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, banana, sour cream, vanilla and salt and blend well. Stir in flax (if using), and baking soda. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off. Add flour and chopped Peanut Butter Cups and stir gently, just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overstir or bread will be tough. Pour/scrape into prepared pan(s).
- Bake 60 minutes (40 minutes for mini loaves), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 10-15 minutes. Remove from pan and finish cooling bread on a rack if you can; this keeps it from getting soggy from condensation. If using foil mini loaf pans, you may cool the bread in the pans.
- When completely cool, store at room temperature in a covered container or zipper-top plastic bag.
- Makes 1 large loaf (12 slices), or 3 mini loaves.
*Banana hint
[3]Speaking of ripe bananas, you will have your best banana bread if you use dead black bananas. They should be entirely black, and maybe with a couple of little fruit flies lazily circling them. (I am not kidding about the flies.) I have a little tutorial on perfect bananas here [1]. When bananas are super duper ripe, you can slit the top and just squirt them out of their skin like toothpaste, into a 1-cup measuring cup. (How’s THAT for an image?) If they are slightly less ripe, peel bananas and put them in a wide, flat bowl. Mash with a potato masher, and scrape the banana mash into the measuring cup to make sure it measures 1 cup. Bananas differ greatly in size, so it is worth measuring the mash to make sure you get the amount right.
Preparation time: 8 minutes
Cooking time: 38-60 minutes (depending on 1 or 3 loaves)
Diet type: Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 12
Culinary tradition: USA (Traditional)
My rating:
Twelve Loaves for February!
This month, bake any bread and post it with the #TwelveLoaves hashtag in the title between Monday, Feb. 18 and Thursday, Feb. 28. Then add your post to the link-up below.
Happy baking!