Cinnamon-crusted banana bread

You may have noticed that I really like quick breads. But the closest thing I've posted to a banana bread, a classic of the genre, is something that's trying pretty hard to be a danish instead. This isn't because I don't like banana bread, because I do—it's because I can't stand the smell of overripe bananas, and smelling that smell is hard to avoid while making banana bread.



But once in a while I suck it up and make banana bread anyway. (Today's excuse was a bunch of bruised bananas left over from camping this weekend.) Orangette had a surprisingly large number of recipes to choose from, and I went with this breakfast-ready option: not too rich, no fancy add-ins (besides chocolate of course), and with a nice crackly spicy crust on top. If you know that it doesn't have any added fat, you can tell that it's ever so slightly gummy, but you probably wouldn't notice the texture if you weren't looking for it. Since all the structure is from sugar and eggs, though, you can't cut back on either of them, so choose a different recipe if you're tempted to reduce the sugar.

3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1.5 c flour
1 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1 c chocolate chips (3/4 c + 1/4 c)
2 T cinnamon sugar (almost 2 T sugar + 1/2 t cinnamon)

Preheat oven to 375F and butter a 8" square pan. Mash the bananas in a large bowl with the potato masher, then stir in the eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon) in a small bowl, then stir into the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in 3/4 c chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and top with the cinnamon sugar and the remaining 1/4 c chocolate chips. Bake for 35-40 min until a tester comes out clean.