Cinnamon Swirl Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

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I know we’re more than a week into it but seriously, freaking September?!

I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the age we live in now where the world is at our fingertips, but when I was a kid a year felt like a year. On top of that, the month of December felt like a year too. I mean, should I be like retail stores and start with my holiday posts now? Just to stay caught up and relevant?

Tally this one up as my first fall post. The cinnamon swirl easily brings this banana bread to the top and the cinnamon streusel is what pushes it over the edge. Throw in chocolate chips for good measure and you’ll get the perfect pairing to your Pumpkin Spiced Latte.

Cinnamon Swirl Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This is the bread that bananas sitting in the grocery store are begging you to turn them into. Everyone in the house will love you... or it? It's better to not think about which they'll love more.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Cool Down Time (please try to follow this) 25 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings 2 Greedy Teenagers

Equipment

• 1 Mixing Bowl it's all you need
• 1-2 Loaf Pans depending on size

Ingredients

  

The Bread

• 4-6 each Bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S)
• 1/3 cup Butter (melted)
• 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 each Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbls Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1.5 cups Flour (all-purpose)
• 3/4 cup Chocolate Chip (dark, always only dark)

The Swirl

• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 1 tbls Cinnamon (yes, more)

The Streusel

• 2/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Turbinado Sugar
• 1/2 cup Flour (all-purpose)
• 1 tsp Cinnamon (MOOOORE)
• 4 tbls Butter (cold, cubed)

Instructions

 

• Turn on your oven to 350 degrees and either put some parchment in loaf pans, or butter and flour them. (just pick one, no one likes an over-achiever)

Streusel Time

• Mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
• Cube the cold butter into it, then use a fork or pastry cutter until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs (see pictures below)
• Set aside and DON'T EAT IT, ya oinker.
• I'm just kidding, you can eat it if you want to, Paula Deen. Don't ever let anyone tell you what to do.

Swirly Goodness

• In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside. Don't eat it.
• Or... You can just dip your streusel into it. Do it, you coward.

Makin' Bread

• Find your favorite glass bowl you like to mix things in and melt your butter in there.
• Add the bananas and mash them up with a fork or whatever you feel comfortable using. (see my YouTube video where I used a metal potato masher because I personify chaotic good)
• Add everything except the flour and chocolate chips - Brown Sugar, Egg, Vanilla, Baking Soda, and Salt - All in the bowl.
• Mix it all up and get it all incorporated.
• Add the flour and chocolate chips. Fold and mix slowly till JUST incorporated. If you see a streak or two of flour, it's ok. Just mix huge pockets.
• Depending on how many pans you're using, divide the batter to fit half of the pans (make sure you have enough to cover them up the other half)
• Sprinkle the swirl mixture on top of the batter. Nice thick layer. Don't be cheap. No one likes it when you're cheap.
• Cover the swirl with the remaining batter. If you did this right, you should have a pan with a layer of batter, swirl in the middle, and a top layer of batter.
• If you did this wrong, don't blame me.
• Top it all off with an even layer of streusel. Or, if you feel like you didn't make enough streusel, just put a little bit on top of each loaf. Trust me, it'll be ok.
• Put in the oven for 50-60 minutes. It all depends on your oven and how much it lies to you. Yes, all ovens lie, better you know that now.
• You'll know it's done when it's not jiggling anymore and you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out without batter. Don't stick it into a chocolate chip and say it's not done yet because you'll have it in the oven for hours.
• Take it out of the oven and let it cool for like 10 minutes. Then you can move it to a rack if you want or just leave it in the pan, it doesn't matter to me, it's your bread now, we're done here.

Notes

• You can double this recipe! I recommend it. Sucks when you make something then it's gone in 3 hours.
• I'm not sure if you can triple this recipe, but go for it, why not?! I dare you.
• If doubling or tripling, please be sure to also increase the amounts of pans you use. Don't @ me if you triple this and try to fit it into one pan. You know who you are.
• You DON'T have to have the swirl. Or the streusel. I have actually made this plenty of times without either of them and I prefer it that way.
• Honestly, I prefer this without chocolate chips as well. But I did that once and NO ONE ATE IT. "This tastes weird, what did you do?!? Why is there no flavor??" There's.. banana.. flavor... just not an extra pound of sugar, you fiends.
• If you make this with no streusel, cut the cooking time down by 10 minutes.
• Always remember to use ripened bananas for your banana bread.
• If you never made this before and you are not familiar, just think of it like this: If you look at a bunch of bananas on your counter, and you think to yourself, "yeesh, I should probably throw those away." You should instead be thinking, "YES! Time to make some banana bread!"
• It's ok if you didn't know this secret. Stop smacking your forehead, I promise, it's fine. You didn't know, you just thought they were bad so you always threw them out. Well now you know.
• And knowing is half the battle.
• Why are ripened bananas always used? I'm glad you asked! Well besides the fact that they have anti-cancer qualities and a much higher level of antioxidants, over ripe bananas are almost always favored for baking. Their starch content has converted to sugar so the banana flavor has been heightened and it'll be a much sweeter taste rather than a bitter one from a green or regular yellow banana. Not to mention they're easier to mash up.
• I made the streusel first. It doesn't matter the order, but it gave me something to munch on while making the rest of it.
• Don't look at me like that! I know I was basically eating butter but you try to only have one bite.
• It's bread. You're going to need a loaf pan.
• If you do not own a loaf pan, then guess what? That's perfectly fine. Make Banana Muffins. Or a Banana Bread Sheet. The Banana Bread Police will not come knocking on your door to ask you what you're doing, I promise. 
• Just don't put raisins in it, or I'll come for you myself. 
• You can also add walnuts if you'd like to. 1/2 cup, together with the chocolate chips. But I have kids who are allergic so I try to not kill them when I can. 

Alright, let’s go bananas.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

• Turn your oven on to 350 and butter and flour the loaf pan.

• For the streusel mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon together then use a fork to cut in the cold butter. Remember, the colder the butter the better. You’re looking for.. well you’re looking for something that looks like streusel. Set it aside when you’re done and try not to eat it all, Paula Deen.

• For the swirl, just throw the sugar and the cinnamon together in a small bowl and mix together. Set it aside too.

• For the bread batter, mash up the bananas nice and good and add everything to it except the flour. Mix it till it’s all together and once it is, add the flour and mix until just combined. If you still see a small clump of flour or two it’s ok. Overmixing will cause the bread to be rubbery and nasty thanks to all the gluten you developed.

• From here, add the chocolate chips as well as the walnuts (if you’re going to use them) and fold them in. When incorporated, slowly pour half the batter into the bread pan. On top of that, sprinkle the swirl mixture.

I made this once after I did it for this post and I tried to double the swirl because you know me and cinnamon. Yeah, it was like a banana bread and cinnamon swirl sandwich. The two halves were slipping and sliding, the entire loaf was one big mess. It was one of those things you just don’t like to admit ever happened and no matter how hard you try to forget you know deep down inside you really truly messed something up big time. And then the salt in the wound when you tweet or post on G+ that you’re making it and then people expect pictures afterward. The one time you wish someone wasn’t paying attention…

• Anyway, you got the swirl on there, next, again, slowly pour the second half of batter on top of the swirl mixture. Once that’s done, if you have any more streusel left that you haven’t eaten, go ahead and layer it on top.

• Pop the pan in the oven for a good 50-60 minutes. Try and find a naked corner with no streusel so you could poke it with a toothpick to make sure it’s done. Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before you try to take it out of the pan.

And that be that. This is my first banana bread recipe I’ve posted on here but I’ve made a couple in the past. Needless to say, this one is clearly the best I’ve ever made. There’s chocolate, a thick ribbon of cinnamon, and streusel. Freaking streusel! I love that stuff! When I die I want to be buried in streusel.

Streusel all the things!!

Now excuse me as I go stock up on canned pumpkin.

The song – White Flag Warriors by Flobots. For obvious reasons