Am I the only one who always ends up with two or more overripe bananas at the end of every week? It happens a lot at our house and I do NOT like to eat them plain. Almost green bananas for me thank you! Peeling these bananas, and mashing them up, is a great job for little hands. It’s pretty much impossible to mess up and can be pretty satisfying. When cooking with toddlers it’s a great idea to give them one, simple, repetitive task… Plus there are tons of ways to use them – since I love banana bread, that’s my typical choice, but you could also throw them in a smoothie, make them into cookies or pancakes, or anything else you can think of! Here are some cute shots of my kids mashing our bananas, and my favorite (100% whole wheat!) banana bread recipe.
And what did we do with our mashed bananas, you ask?? Well here is my go-to banana bread recipe. I have made this several times in the last few months – my husband loves the addition of chocolate chips and I love that it is 100% whole wheat. Win-Win!
100% Whole Wheat Banana-Chocolate Chip Bread
Ingredients
- 2-3 ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
TODDLER TASKS
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Peel and mash 2-3 overripe bananas.
ADULT TASKS
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Preheat oven to 350F.
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Grease 1 loaf pan, or line 12 muffin tins.
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Mix mashed bananas with melted butter.
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Add baking soda and salt, stir. Stir in sugar, egg, and vanilla.
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Mix in flour, and then gently stir in chocolate chips.
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Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour if making bread, until toothpick comes out clean. If making muffins, bake for 20 minutes.
Recipe Notes
Do not use whole wheat pastry flour. True story: I tried it once last month thinking it would improve on the regular whole wheat flour version, but it sunk down in the middle, was super crumbly and basically didn't hold together at all! We still ate it but it turns out so much better with regular whole wheat flour... come to find out whole wheat pastry flour isn't the best choice for breads! Now I know!
Adapted from Banana Bread at SimplyRecipes.com