Aunt Holly's Banana Bread

From the kitchen of Carly

Dense, buttery banana bread studded with chocolate chips. Ripe bananas mashed into a simple batter that bakes golden and tender. The kind of loaf you slice warm, then keep slicing because one piece never feels like enough.

Aunt Holly's Banana Bread

Ripe bananas mashed straight into butter and sugar make this loaf impossibly tender, the kind of cake bread that needs zero finesse. The real secret is patience: wait until the skins are nearly black before you bake. Those chocolate chips aren't optional, they're the whole point. This is the recipe that lingers in a kitchen.

Prep
n/a
Cook
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Total
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Servings
4
Difficulty
medium

Ingredients

4 servings

  • 3ripe bananas
  • 1/4 cupmelted butter
  • 1 cupsugar
  • 1 1/2 cupflour
  • 1/4 tspsalt
  • 1egg, beaten
  • 1 tspbaking soda
  • 1Chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, mash the bananas until mostly smooth, then add the melted butter, sugar, flour, salt, beaten egg, baking soda, and as many chocolate chips as you like. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon until well combined. Pour the batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Let it cool slightly before slicing.

Tips from the kitchen

  • Banana ripeness matters more than baking time. If your bananas are still yellow, the bread tastes starchy and flat. Go for spotty skin or almost-black. Three bananas minimum, four if they're small.
  • Don't overmix. Stir just until the flour disappears into the wet ingredients. Lumps are fine. Overmixing makes the crumb tough and dense.
  • A toothpick test can be deceiving with melted chocolate. Use a wooden skewer instead, or poke near the edge where there's no chocolate to confuse the result.
  • This loaf keeps baking as it cools. Pull it out when the toothpick is barely clean, not bone dry. It'll firm up perfectly as it sits.

Variations

  • Brown butter: Melt the butter in a small pan and let it brown until nutty, then cool slightly before mixing. Adds depth without changing a thing else.
  • Walnut or pecan version: Skip the chocolate and fold in toasted chopped nuts instead. Same technique, different finish.
  • Spiced banana bread: Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg to the dry ingredients. Keeps the chocolate chips if you want both flavors.

Make ahead and storage

Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days, or freeze for up to three months. Thaw at room temperature and refresh in a 300°F oven for five minutes if you want it warm.