Food on Fridays: You’ll go bananas for this bread

I’ve been wanting to make this banana bread for months now. It’s one of my favorite snack foods on the planet, and it’s great for breakfast, dessert, or slipped into a lunch sack. But it’s hard at our house to get my mitts on ripe bananas. My daughter eats two a day, and my husband uses one every morning for smoothies, so I can’t buy them quickly enough. Luckily, I stockpiled a few bunches last week and finally had enough to make this wonderful recipe. I am not the hugest fan of ginger in the world, but the candied variety used here (found at Trader Joe’s or Hen House) adds the perfect spice to the sweet banana and milky chocolate.

This recipe comes by way of my favorite food blogger, Orangette. I’ve been using it for years now, so I’ve forgotten who Glenn is. But thanks for the recipe, Glenn!

Recipe’s after the jump.

Glenn’s Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Candied Ginger (via Orangette)

1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ripe medium-size bananas
3 Tbs milk
2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
Small chunks of candied ginger, to taste
½ cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with butter or cooking spray, and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar, egg, and butter. In a separate bowl, mash bananas; then mix with milk.

In another separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three parts, alternating with banana-milk mixture in two parts, stirring by hand until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, ginger, and optional nuts.

Turn batter into loaf pan, smoothing top with the back of a spoon, and bake for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes; then remove bread from pan and cool on a wire rack.