The Accidental Best Banana Bread

• servings: 1 loaf

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 cup brown or white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon kosher salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Large handful (or two) chocolate chips (optional but highly recommended)

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream the two together into auniform mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then add the eggs and stir to combine.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Add the flour mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer and stir to combine. Scrape down the bowl and add the mashed bananas, vanilla, and chocolate chips (if using) and mix.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a fork inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly but eat warm if you can-the gooey chocolate chips take the banana bread to another level. Keep the loaf well wrapped at room temperature for a few days or wrap in aluminum foil and freeze in a resealable bag with the air pressed out for a few months.

Notes

Source: Perfectly Good Food, by Margaret Li and Irene Li

I know what you're thinking: There are 98,345 banana bread recipes out there and they all claim to be the best. I too kept trying , supposedly superlative banana bread recipes and never found a clear favorite. Until I decided to try the recipe on a supermarket banana bag on a whim... and, haphazardly multitasking the way I often do when cooking, accidentally left out an entire cup of flour. Oops. But! Out came the moistest, softest, banana-iest bread, holding together just enough to be sliceable, so rich and rewarding, but somehow actually feeling healthier with a cup of white flour gone and only the cup of whole wheat flour still remaining. I finally feel that banana bread hyperbole is justifed, and so do the many skeptics who have tried it and quickly been converted, especially when chocolate chips are involved.