Chocolate chip banana bread

Sometimes we buy too many bananas. With one or two overripe bananas, I'll make banana pancakes with pecans and coconut. With three or four, I'll make banana bread. Not just any banana bread, but banana bread with chocolate chips. The original recipe calls for nuts, but chocolate chips are much, much better.

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 or 3 (or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter until soft. Add sugar and eggs. Beat until fluffy. Add mashed bananas. Add baking powder, salt and first cup of flour, then mix until just combined. Add the second cup of flour. Mix. Add the chocolate chips and mix one last time.

Bake at 350 degrees in a greased and floured loaf pan for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (I usually set my timer for 70 minutes, then check for the last 5 minutes. Sometimes it needs an additional 5 minutes or so.)

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn out the loaf on to a cooling rack.

I recommend overbuying bananas once in a while, even if you usually don't, as this is a particularly good banana bread recipe. I don't know its origins; it was passed down to me from my mom.