Name: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Ingredients: 1 Tablespoon shortening for pan (approximately); 2 cups flour (8.5 ounces or 240 grams); 3/4 cup sugar (5.29 ounces or 150 grams); 3/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup salted peanuts, chopped coarsely (see notes); 2 eggs, large; 3 overripe bananas, large; 1/2 cup peanut butter (4.25 ounces or 120 grams); 1/4 cup plain yogurt; 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

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They say necessity is the mother of all invention and nowhere is that more true than in the kitchen. Ok. It’s true everywhere, but in the kitchen is probably where it happens most often. Invention, I mean, and this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe just proves the point. So, today, we’re headed back down south to peanut country…

The Spark

Not long ago, I needed to use up my overripe bananas and what better way to do that than to make banana bread? Unfortunately, as I gathered my ingredients I realized some small beings from another planet must’ve snuck into my refrigerator and ate all the walnuts. They always do stuff like that and don’t even have the courtesy to leave a note.

Well, I can’t eat banana bread without walnuts. Actually, I can, but I don’t want to. It’s that cruchy/soft juxtaposition that I like so much. I looked in the pantry and noticed the aliens hadn’t touched my husband’s giant jar of cocktail peanuts. Bananas and peanuts? Why not, I thought. Shoot, why not just throw some peanut butter in there, too? And, chocolate!

Of course, chocolate chips are good in pretty much anything, except maybe spaghetti sauce. I don’t know, though. I might have to try that sometime. Spaghetti sauce with chocolate chips? Yeah… maybe not. But, the banana bread with chocolate chips, peanuts, and peanut butter? That reminded me of my favorite Disneyland treat, frozen bananas covered in chocolate and peanuts. What’s not to love? So, I gave it a try and I have to say, it’s as scrumptiously decadent as I thought it would be.

How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

If you’ve read any of my other blog posts, you know I’m a firm believer in mise en place. The act of getting everything for a recipe out and ready. Pans prepared. Oven preheated. All of the ingredients measured, chopped, or otherwise readied before mixing everything together. Doing this ensures you won’t get halfway through the recipe before you realize you don’t have everything you need.

Gather Your Ingredients

So, first, place an oven rack at the center level of your oven and preheat to 350° F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch bread pan and set it aside. (A smaller pan will not work for this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe.)

Now, go ahead and gather all eleven of your ingredients:

Shortening for pan
Flour
Sugar
Baking Soda
Peanuts
Peanut Butter
Bananas
Yogurt
Eggs
Butter
Vanilla Extract
Chocolate chips – semisweet

Grab a wire whisk, a large mixing spoon, and two bowls – one large and one smaller. Also get your measuring devices together, a digital scale, if you have one, measuring cups and spoons. A rubber spatula would also be good to have.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is so chock full of goodies, it almost bursts out of the pan.

Measure and Mix

Once you have your equipment and ingredients together, go ahead and measure everything out. I like to put each ingredient into separate little bowls before I mix everything together, but the two bowls are just fine, if you don’t want to dirty every bowl in the house.

In addition to mise en place, I like to follow the “clean as you go” rule and put all of my ingredients away after I’ve measured everything out I need from them. It’s also a good idea to keep your sink or a bowl full of hot, soapy water, in case you need to wash a measuring spoon or something before using it again within the same recipe. It’s just as important to clean as you go as it is to have mise en place. It eliminates chaos in the kitchen and makes cleaning up after cooking or baking a breeze.

Don’t Forget to Melt the Butter

Now, melt your butter and put it aside to cool. Then, measure and chop your peanuts. Measure your dry ingredients into one large bowl and add the chopped peanuts. Stir this dry mixture really well with a wire whisk. Make sure everything is evenly incorporated.

Next, measure the wet ingredients into the smaller bowl, eggs first. Slightly beat the eggs, then add the bananas and mash them. Mix in the peanut butter, yogurt, cooled melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir these ingredients really well, also. You may use a mixer, but it’s really not necessary. A large spoon will handle everything. I don’t recommend the wire whisk at this stage as the peanut butter will just glob onto it and make a big mess.

Combine the Wet and Dry Mixtures

Once you have all the wet ingredients stirred together, go ahead and dump the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Now, stir the wet and dry together with a large spoon until no dry flour is left showing. Everything should be wet and evenly incorporated.

Fold in your chocolate chips. Just dump them into the bowl with everything else and fold the batter over them. Use your rubber spatula or large spoon and fold, over and over, until the chocolate chips are evenly dispersed within the banana bread batter.

Get It In the Oven

Lastly, pour the batter into your prepared 9 x 5 inch bread pan and gently tap the pan on the counter several times, dispersing the batter evenly within the pan.

At this point, you’re probably going to freak out, because the batter is going to come up to just about 3/4 to 1 inch below the top of the bread pan, if you use a 9 x 5 inch bread pan. It’s ok. It won’t overflow in the oven as long as your oven has been thoroughly preheated. The heat will ensure the batter forms a bit of a crust around its edges to hold everything in before it really starts to rise. Just put the pan in the center of the oven to bake and set a timer for 55 minutes. It may take a little longer than 55 minutes to bake, but this is a good time to start checking for doneness.

Is it done yet?

The bread is done when it is a deep, golden brown, it springs back when you gently push on the top of it, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. If the toothpick comes out really sticky, clean it off and recheck in a couple of different places along the middle fissure to ensure it wasn’t just banana stuck on the toothpick. If it’s still gooey, keep baking and check again in five minutes.

When it’s done, remove it from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before dumping it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Wait, at least, 45 minutes before cutting into it.

Feel free to play around with this recipe. It’s a good one to experiment with. Just be sure to keep the yogurt in the recipe as it’s acidic and that’s what the baking soda reacts with to make the bread rise.

If you’ve made this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe, please, rate it on the recipe card and I’d love to hear how you like it in the comments below.

Want more peanut butter and chocolate goodness? Try my Ultimate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.