His 'n' Hers Banana Bread

Here's how to jazz up your ordinary banana bread in a way that both the guys in the house and the ladies of the home will enjoy.  Take your basic banana bread recipe (ala Betty Crocker's 40th Anniversary Cookbook--thanks, Betty!)  :

3 ripe (ie. browned) bananas, peeled and mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup 'buttermilk' (milk soured with 1 1/2 tsp vinegar)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt

Mix your butter and sugar, then add in the eggs.  After the eggs have been stirred in, add the bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Stir well.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened and the only lumps are from the bananas.

Okay, here's where we depart from Betty's recipe and strike out on our own.

Butter/grease the bottoms only of two 8" loaf pans.  Take half of the banana bread batter, and pour it into the first pan.  To this pan, add 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped walnuts.  Gently stir the nuts into the batter, trying not to get too much batter up the sides of the pan.  

Now, to the remaining batter in the mixing bowl, add in 3/4 to 1 cup chocolate chips.  Stir well.  Pour this batter into the second loaf pan (the still empty one).

Put both pans on the lowest rack of an oven heated to 350 degrees. Bake for 60 minutes.  At the end of an hour, test with a toothpick to see if the bread is done (poke the center of the top of each loaf.  If no batter sticks to the toothpick, the bread is done.)  Most likely, your bread is done.  I've been baking this for almost 20 years and unless my oven is on the fritz, the bread has always been done after an hour.

Take the pans out of the oven, and set on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, loosen the sides of the loaves from the pans with a knife.  Gently turn each pan upside down (support the bread with your hand) to remove loaf from pan.  Set bread, right side up, back on the cooling rack to finish cooling.

There you have it, His 'n' Hers Banana Bread.  Nuts for the guys, chocolate for the gals.  :0)