Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

Banana, chocolate, peanut-butter, oh my!

I always seem to be a little over zealous of my ability to eat an entire bunch of bananas. I usually eat two or three bananas and then completely forget about the rest of the bunch. About a week later, I will find the rest of the bananas on the counter, very ripe, very brown and very inedible. Luckily, very ripe bananas combined with a few spices, some sugar and some flour becomes extremely delicious banana bread!

I love banana bread. It reminds me of home. At least once a month my dad would bake banana bread from an old Sunset Magazine recipe that he has had forever. It was always best straight out of the oven because the butter would melt instantly into the bread. Yum! If my dad didn't stop us from eating it, the whole loaf of bread would be gone before it had even cooled off! 

On my most recent discovery of four overly ripe bananas in my kitchen, I decided to put a little twist on my dad's classic recipe. 

Banana + Peanut Butter + Chocolate = Yum! 

The top should crack, this means your baking soda is working!

After 30 unsuccessful minutes of looking for the infamous recipe online, I came across a Cooking Light (a subsidiary of Sunset) recipe for Peanut Butter-Banana Bread that I thought would make a good base for my banana-peanut butter-chocolate bread. 

Banana bread is not only super delicious but also super easy to make! All the wet ingredients are combined in one bowl and all the dry ingredients are combined in the other...then mix! I remembered that my dad's recipe called for buttermilk (which the DH is also obsessed with!) so I decided to replace the yogurt in the recipe with equal parts buttermilk. I also decided to substitute the white sugar in the recipe for honey to give the bread a more hearty flavor. I reduced the cooking temperature by 25 degrees because honey browns much quicker in the oven than white sugar does. Lastly, after adding my chocolate chips to the batter, I decided that the bread needed a crunch so I threw in a couple hand fulls of chopped walnuts that I had laying around in the pantry. 

Everything is better with butter!

Because of the reduced temperature, the bread took a little bit longer to bake than normal which means I had to wait even longer to cut myself a warm slice. As soon as the bread was cool enough to cut into without it falling apart, I cut myself and the DH each a huge slice and, of course, spread a thick layer of butter over it. The richness of the peanut butter complimented the sweetness of the banana without overwhelming it and the burst of gooey chocolate ever other bite was perfect! YUMMY! I quickly consumed mine and eyed the hubby's slice across the table that he was slowing picking at. 

"Stop trying to eat my slice with your eyes! Cut yourself another slice if you want it, but this one is mine," he said. So I did...two more, in fact! 

The bread is a great, healthier dessert that goes perfect with a glass of milk or an indulgent breakfast that nicely compliments a rich cup of coffee...and don't forget about the butter!

Live. Love. Bake.

Peanut Butter-Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts
Adapted from Cooking Light's Peanut Butter-Banana Bread

Ingredients for bread 
 
4 overly ripe, brown bananas (Don't have brown bananas? Check out Clean, Green, Simple's tutorial)

1/3 cup peanut butter

3 Tb. melted butter

2 large eggs

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. allspice

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup chopped walnuts 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a standard loaf pan.
2. Mash the bananas in a large bowl. Add the peanut butter, melted butter, eggs and honey. Mix on medium speed. Add the brown sugar and beat until well blended
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Mix until combined.
4. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the banana mixture; starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. 
5. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake on the center rack for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the top of the loaf is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. 
6. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely.