Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

  

This was such a surprising recipe - I had to share! I often have a bag or two of bananas in my freezer. We ALWAYS have bananas in the house, and inevitably there are times when we eat a lot less and those ones get ripe too fast and end up in the freezer bag. I realized I had THREE bags in my freezer during a recent freezer purge and searched for recipes that used a lot of overripe bananas at one time. This one fit the bill - and was so tasty to boot!

The batter comes together easily, blend all your ingredients into a single bowl, spread in a jelly roll sized baking sheet and voila! Tender, delicious banana bars in no time. We were trying to come up with a new name for these - to me they are "Banana Brownies" so Brow-Nanas and Bananies were the top contenders. Call them what you want, but definitely give them a try!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bars from Butter with a Side of Bread

Ingredients
5 very ripe small - medium bananas (frozen then thawed works great)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil any type
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a jelly roll pan (15×10.5") with non-stick baking spray and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the bananas together until they are well mashed. Add in the brown sugar, oil, and eggs, blend until combined. Add in the milk and blend once more.
3. Once all wet ingredients are well blended, add in the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and blend just until combined. Lastly, slowly add in the flour on low speed just until mostly blended in. Turn mixer off and finish blending in flour by hand (don't over mix).
4. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand (original recipe calls for 1-cup but I prefer a slightly lower amount - add the full cup if desired).
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 18-22 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool for about an hour before cutting into bars and serving / storing.
7. Note - these are really delicious warm! Just be careful cutting, they'll be extra soft fresh from the oven.