Chunky Monkey Banana Bread

May 22, 2012

A moist, delicious banana bread loaded with chocolate chunks and nuts. Perfect for breakfast or an afternoon or late night snack.

We make a lot of banana bread/banana muffins at our house and I’m always looking for fun ways to change it up. I had a bag of Scharffenberger chocolate chunks I’d been wanting to bake with and when I decided to add them to banana bread, Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey Ice Cream came to mind.

Their popular banana ice cream is loaded with chocolate chunks and walnuts, but my favorite nut is almonds, so I switched it up and used toasted sliced almonds. I thought about using macadamia nuts for an extra tropical flair, but didn’t want to make a trip to the store. Maybe I’ll try that next time.

I made 4 mini loaves. I love making the mini loaves because they cook in half the time and are easy to share. Not that any of these loaves were shared. They were all gobbled up by the next day.

I have to admit that I haven’t ever eaten Chunky Monkey ice cream. Something I think I should remedy soon. Are you a Chunky Monkey fan?

Chunky Monkey Banana Bread

Yield: 4 mini loaves

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup sour cream (I used low fat)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup coarsely smashed (chunky) very ripe banana (about 3 small)
  • 1 6 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chunks
  • 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted and cooled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

Combine sugar, melted butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl; beat until well blended. Stir in bananas. Add flour mixture to banana mixture, stirring just until moistened. Mix in chocolate chunks and nuts.

Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3-inch loaf pan coated with baking spray with flour. Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

*I made 4 mini loaves. Bake mini loaves for 30 minutes or muffins for 18 minutes.

More recipes you might like:

Banana Nutella Bread, Barbara Bakes
Homemade Chunky Monkey Ice Cream, What’s Gaby Cooking
Raspberry- Dark Chocolate Banana Bread, Recipe Boy
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Plus Sweet Banana Recipe Roundup, Foodie Crush