Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread With a Two-Slice Minimum

Plus a couple things I always keep in my pantry

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Does anyone else’s freckled and browning bananas looking at you like a sad puppy dog waiting for you to throw its ball? You can’t not pay attention to them. Oddly, 4-day old bagged salad never looks at me this way.

Indeed, we can choose to ignore the sad puppy waiting for their ball to be thrown and drop the poor $.25 browning bananas in the garbage—or we can be the hero of our homes and whip up this Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread. What shall it be?

I can’t say banana bread is the first thing I look for when entering a pastry shop. Maybe an English scone (arguably the better ancestor of the American biscuit), especially with clotted cream, fruit preserves, or lemon curd. It’s not just the simple flavor of a warm scone I love but also the process of preparing each bite—English scones are meant to be prepared bite-by-bite and eaten with your hands. Traditionally, you won’t find scones served with any silverware but a spreader. I love pretentious food that begs for casual. Caviar on crinkle cut potato chips.

Maybe, when stopping into a boulangerie, I’ll look for a simple, buttery croissant paired with a hot chocolate (even better in a large latte cup for dipping) or a pain au chocolat. And you can guarantee that I’m looking for anything flaky and buttery with a layer of crème d’amandes stuffed inside. But not usually banana bread.

But this banana bread deserves a special shout out.

On a Saturday morning, there’s not much more that smells better—or more like the weekend—than something homemade baking in the oven. The smells seem to seep through your skin and through different rooms in your home like a comforting balm or cosy blanket. Oftentimes, we’re so busy that we time hack our way through this part of enjoying the process, but skipping over the way baked banana bread smells and makes you close your eyes with pause would be missing an important part of completely enjoying the recipe—in the same way, I always pause to smell my fresh ground espresso beans before they’re brewed in the morning. Smells from the kitchen, as with fragrances in the garden, have the magic ability to make time crumble away.

This banana bread recipe is easy to make and clean up. It does take 60 minutes to bake. And some time for a proper cooling. So you’ll need a pinch of planning.

Once assembled, I popped our wet loaf mix into the oven an hour before we left for Ollie’s soccer game in the morning, and pulled it out to cool just before we left for the game. When we got back, the loaf was the perfect temperature for all to enjoy.

I haven’t made this recipe before writing you all, and since, I’ve made it twice and memorized the recipe—the way you do with the best recipes handed down from generations.

I quickly learned that this is a two-slice minimum banana bread recipe. Everyone loved it. I particularly love how the bread is the perfect amount of moist, and how the chocolate baking disks that I used spaced out the chocolatey flavor so to give my mouth a breather between bites.

How I adapted the recipe:

I threw in Guitttard 74% Organic Chocolate Baking Disks. I love these chocolate disks because they are the perfect size without needing to chop them up—and not too sweet or bitter. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t want chocolate in every bite, but when I do want chocolate, I want it to satisfy me—this is not the job for a small chocolate chip…you need a chocolate disk. (When I want something purely chocolate-chocolate, I reach for a recipe like this super simple, super wow chocolate lava cake or easy chocolate truffles.) Usually, I want chocolate in my recipes to walk the tightrope between annoying child (look at me!) and totally unengaged. I most enjoy it when it’s surprisingly moderate and balanced, with the satisfaction of a few really full-on bites.

I left out the nuts.

I baked it for 60 minutes and let it cool on the counter for over an hour.

I used 100% Einkorn Wheat All-Purpose Flour in a 1-1 ratio. This flour is easier to digest than refined all-purpose flour for some people with gluten sensitivities, and usually has more nutrition and a bit more fiber and protein.

I used light brown sugar in the recipe, and crumbled it on top of the loaf before baking. 10/10 recommend. Adding the subtle, sweet crunch on the top elevated the loaf from— “I just whipped this up to spare my dying bananas” to “I really thought about the experience of completely enjoying this.”

A couple things I always keep in my pantry:

Guittard, Organic 74% Chocolate Baking Wafers. This is the chocolate base I use for everything: homemade simple chocolate truffles, bread pudding, banana bread…

100% Einkorn Wheat All-Purpose Flour. With it’s 1-1 ratio for recipes with all-purpose flour, I almost always swap this for a refined flour, unless I’m making a traditional style cake that needs lots of fluff. I use Einkorn flour for my flour dredges when I’m making my favorite chicken breast with lemon recipe, fish tacos, soup roux, to most every baked good… it’s versatile, plays every position on the field, and it’s not as heavy and dense as whole wheat flour that can oft sink a baked loaf or cake.