My Mom's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I've done a lot of independent research on banana bread. I've tried several different variations, made minor modifications, added different things and baked it differently. After all this effort, the results are in: my mom's is the best.

Sometimes I make it in the form of bread, sometimes as muffins. It all comes out the same: wonderful, tasty, delicious, and comforting. The best days I ever had growing up would be when my mom and I were playing a game of Memory and she would surprise me with a piece of warm banana bread straight out of the oven. I just felt really happy all over again thinking about that. Oh, the good ol' days. Now I have to serve it to myself straight out of the oven, and no one is playing Memory with me.  

If you need a Banana Bread recipe (and you do, everyone does), use this one. 

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup ripe mashed bananas (2 large)
• 3 tablespoons milk
• Lots o' chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. In a bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg, then vanilla.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and soda. In another bowl, mash the bananas with the milk.  With the the standing mixer on low speed, add a little of the flour mixture, then the bananas, and continue to alternate until everything is mixed in. Turn off the mixer, and stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Or, sometimes I actually like to turn up the mixer to high instead of stirring in the chocolate chips, because I feel like it really smashes the chocolate flavor in there. Up to you.

Grease a bread loaf pan (I think mine is a 9X5), pour in the banana bread batter (is it dough or batter? It looks more like batter), and bake for about 45 min to one hour, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. The edges will begin to look a little darker, but keep it in until the center is done.  If you are doing muffins, they will only take about 25-35 minutes, but keep your eye on them.

Serve warm with butter, or peanut butter, or mashed on top of ice cream. Thank you, mom, for our shared love of board games and desserts!