Everything is Better with Peanut Butter

It's just about banana season again.  And whenever there are bananas, banana bread can't be far behind.

Last week I was at Costco and I picked up some bananas.  I knew when I bought them that there were at least 3 or 4 more bananas in the bunch than we would ultimately consume.  Alas, I wasn't wrong.  Today there were a couple of sad looking bananas sitting there on the counter, too speckled to be of interest to anyone around here.  "Make me into banana bread", they said.  (That would be assuming that bananas really could talk -- but you get the idea.)

I made a lot of banana bread last year and frankly I couldn't stomach another hum drum loaf.  I needed to shake up the banana tree and make a bread that was a little, shall we say, outside last year's banana bread box.

My close personal friend Google helped me out with this recipe.  What could be better than a banana bread chock full of banana, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.  Hardly a health food, but very appealing nonetheless.

Recipe:  Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Bread
(Adapted from Tate's Bake Shop)

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup salted butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup ripe banana, mashed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a standard loaf pan and set aside.

In a small bowl whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.

In a separate large mixing bowl beat butter and sugars until combined. Mix in peanut butter and banana. Mix in egg and vanilla, scraping down sides of bowl. Add flour mixture and beat on low until combined. Pour in milk and beat on low until batter is smooth. Mix in chocolate chips.

Add batter to loaf pan and evenly spread out. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the center springs back when pressed with a fingertip. Cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes, remove from pan and cool completely.