When life gives you too many bananas, its only nature that you make banana bread.  And if you happen to be really stressed out and freaking over calculus, you add a couple handfuls of chocolate chips into the batter.

Its been a very long time since I’ve taken any math courses.  Its been almost a decade since I took (and successfully passed) calculus my junior year in high school.  I thought that was the end of my math career, but here I am trying to fulfill pre-med prerequisites at 27.

I loved math as a child.  This probably stemmed from my dad being a math genius.  From basic arithmetic in elementary school to integral and vector calculus in college, my dad could always help me out with my homework.  Just last week I called him up in panic over an equation I deemed impossible.  No matter what time of night, he’d willingly accept the challenge and show me how easy the problem was to solve.

In a way, my dad is sort of like banana bread.  Banana bread never fails you.  I’ve never heard any banana bread horror stories.  Banana bread is always sweet and delicious.  The way its aroma fills every nook and cranny of the kitchen and surrounding rooms is absolutely intoxicating.  And more than anything, banana bread is comforting and makes you feel like the world (or math) isn’t as cruel and confusing as you once thought.

Double Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, adapted from King Arthur’s Flour
makes one 9×5” loaf

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 medium bananas, mashed

1/2 cup non-fat plain yogurt

1 cup cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 9×5” loaf pan with butter or baking spray.  Set aside.

2.  Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.

3.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg.  Add vanilla, mashed bananas, and yogurt.  Mix until combined.  Add in dry ingredients and mix on low speed until almost combined.  Add chocolate chips and continue to mix on low until well incorporated.

make sure you use ripe bananas!

4.  Transfer batter to the prepared loaf pan.  Bake in preheated oven to 45-60 minutes until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5.  Remove from oven ad allow in cool in pan for 10-15 minutes before unmolding.  Turn banana bread out onto a rack to let cool completely.