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It’s so many things! So many wonderful, lick-your-fingers-and-scoop-up-the-crumbs wonderful things!
My all-time favorite banana bread recipe comes with a hearty scoop of shortening, and as delicious as it is, I’m trying to eat a smidge healthier, so I set out to create a lightened-up version. After a few “meh” attempts over the past year, I stumbled upon this version from Rachael Ray, which uses vegetable oil.
I decided to boost the tropical flavor with some chocolate-coconut candies — chopped mini-Mounds bars work well — in addition to semisweet chocolate chips. You could also use sweetened flaked coconut, but I’m not too crazy about all of the strands of coconut in the bread.
My biggest change from the RachRay version is one key step in the method: About 40 minutes into cooking, remove the loaf from the oven, add tin foil to cover the top (being careful not to burn your fingers!), reduce the temperature to 300 degrees F, and finish cooking for the remaining 30 minutes. That ensures the center of the banana bread bakes without burning the top of the bread (an all-too-common problem).
Try it for yourself, and let us know what you think. And if you’ve found another recipe we need to try, please share it in the comments!
Coconut Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 mashed bananas (3 if bananas are small)
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 Mounds bar, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add in the eggs, oil and mashed banana, stirring just enough to incorporate everything.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and chopped candy, then pour into a greased loaf pan.
- Cook for 40 minutes. Remove the banana bread from the oven, reduce oven to 300 degrees F, and add a foil tent to cover the loaf. (Be careful not to burn your fingers!)
- Put the bread back in the oven for 25-30 minutes, cooking until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out mostly clean, with just a few crumbs.
