My new favorite way to use up old bananas
I had some old bananas just waiting to be used to bake something the other night, but I felt like doing something slightly more interesting that my normal banana bread. After a bit of seaching - I found a recipe for Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel. I modified it a bit based on what I had around the house (and a few of the reviewers comments) to come up with the following recipe:
Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel (modified and paraphrased from Epicurious)
Ingredients
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 tablespoons milk
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8x8 inch baking pan. Stir together chocolate chips, brown sugar, nuts, and cinnamon; set aside. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and egg in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in mashed bananas and milk. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Spread half of batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool coffee cake in pan on rack.
One of my co-workers declared it the best cake ever. I certainly would not go that far, but I would say that it is my favorite banana concoction ever... I think the combination of textures and the cinnamon are what make it a defintite step up over standard banana bread (and almost as easy).
