As you may or may not know, I have an unfortunate habit of letting things sit in my apartment until they start to crawl towards my garbage can, begging for a merciful death. Be it buttermilk or bananas, there always seems to be something that inevitably dies before I can get to it.
But not this year! This year, I’m going to make an active effort to use/consume everything I buy – no more waste! I won’t call it a New Year’s resolution, but I will call it something I’m trying to improve upon. And so far, I’m doing alright…with the help of these beauties:
Banana Chocolate Chip Brownies
Booya! Banana chocolate chip brownies!
I had 2 bananas wasting away on my table, and since they were beyond being edible on their own (unless you’re my father, who will mix rotting fruit in a blender and dub it “healthy drink”) I figured it was time for some banana bread. But when it came time to track down a recipe, I found I just didn’t have it in me to go with such a standard idea. I decided that it was time instead for brownies, and that surely there must be a recipe for banana brownies somewhere our there.
Well, there is. And don’t call me Shirley.
Mixin' it up!
Daily Garnish had a recipe banana chocolate chip brownies that I based these off of, keeping most things the same except for her use of soy milk. Additionally, because I used dark cocoa powder (because that’s the only cocoa powder I keep around the apartment) these turned out extra dark, making them appear almost like fudge. They’re super dense and a little sticky, so it’s an easy mistake to make off-hand.
As usual because these are brownies, they’re super-simple to make (hooray!), and oh man, do these smell like banana. I wouldn’t call them overwhelming, but it’s nice to know that the flavor really stands out rather than being masked by the cocoa powder and chocolate chips. While I’m obviously not trying to make these healthy, I’d be kind of bummed if you couldn’t even taste the banana in them.
Another glamor shot.
These were a great, super-tasty variation on your normal brownies. Be careful, though – remember that these are a lot more akin to fudge as oppose to standard brownies in terms of texture, so I recommend cutting them in small pieces. Enjoy!
Banana Chocolate Chip Brownies
Adapted from Daily Garnish.
Yields one 9×13 pan of brownies.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 medium bananas, mashed
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (I probably put in a whole cup)
Instructions:
1. Mix together dry ingredients.
2. Add all the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
3. Spray a 9×13″ pan and spread the batter into the pan.
4. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.
5. Consume!
Mine turned out a little wet in the middle, but were still delicious. You may want to bake these a little longer – whatever you prefer!
Mary Gezo
Formerly of both n00bcakes and !Blog, the two magically become one on Spatialdrift; expect some lazy baking and serious nerditude. Also, I love semicolons.
I’ve long been terrible at letting things go to waste in the fridge. Often, I let jam get moldy. Sometimes, cream cheese. And buttermilk goes bad for sure – which is even worse since it takes so long:/
But I recently used up a carton of buttermilk, and felt so inevitably proud of myself for doing so, that I too strive to no longer let good things go to waste!
Mmm, dense fudgy brownies. I have an old banana laying around…
If I could only eat chocolaty banana things, I would not be a sad panda. And I like my brownies fudgy, so these are going onto my must-bake list! If you don’t have time to make something with your brown bananas, chuck ’em in the freezer! You don’t even have to peel them or anything. Then just let them thaw before you want to use them (they’ll look disgusting, but are a-okay!).
omg I love bananas in baked good. Love them so hard.
Also, that shirley joke is SUCH a dad joke! As I read it I could hear my dad making that joke. I love a good dad joke (“dim sum? there’s so much food here that it should be called dim lots!”)
@Emma – Dooo iiiiiit. Old bananas aren’t getting old out of spite – they’re getting old because they want you to make brownies!
@Jessica – Oh man, that freezer trick is awesome! I had never heard of such a thing. I am now like-whoa excited. 😀
@Stephanie – Bananas are *awesome* in baked goods. They make things just a little fruity and nice’n’moist. I love it. Also, I love Airplane. 😀 Har har har!
Surely no one really believed this but for “healthy drink” the fruit is never ever rotten, just fully ripened beyond being able to be handled safely. And don’t call me Shirley…
Father!
Be not offended…but seriously, I’ve never seen anyone eat fruit as far gone as you do in healthy drink. 😀
<3
Aww, Mary’s Dad!
Without butter and eggs, my brownies seems a gummy brownies 🙁
It’s normal? I made a mistakes? Buh!
Bye,
Fru
@Fru – I don’t think they should taste gummy, but they will be considerably denser and chewier than “normal” brownies. Did you add and thoroughly the right amount of baking powder for lift?