Banana Bread | Jen Chooses Joy

I am a huge banana bread lover. I found a recipe that used toffee chips in place of chocolate chips and I just knew that I had to try it. The toffee is baked into and on top of the bread. It caramelizes adding a crunch to the top and a gooey sweetness to the middle. This is definitely a fun twist on classic banana bread and I recommend it highly! Let’s bake!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pan.

Combine bananas, butter, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl and mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes.

Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl whisk the dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry mixture to the wet banana mixture and stir until combined.

Fold in 1 cup of the toffee bits.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and top with the remaining 1/3 cup toffee bits.

Bake for 50-60 minutes. Cover with foil if top starts to brown too much. (I covered mine with foil after 25 minutes.) Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Slice just before serving and enjoy!!

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces chocolate covered toffee bits; divided into 1 cup and 1/3 cup (I used a bag of Heath bits from the baking aisle.)
Optional ingredient: chopped walnut

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.; grease a 5X9” loaf pan.

Combine the bananas, butter, sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until thoroughly mixed; add vanilla.

Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add to the banana mixture and stir until combined. Fold in 1 cup of toffee chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and top with remaining 1/3 cup toffee chips. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. I covered mine with foil after 30 minutes in the oven to prevent the toffee topping from becoming too crunchy. Cool on rack for at least ten minutes before removing from pan.

Remember that banana bread is always better the next day….if you can wait that long!

Recipe adapted from: The Dutch Baker’s Daughter

Related Recipes:

Brown Sugar Banana Bread

Pineapple and Coconut Granola

Chewy ‘Big Clusters’ Maple Granola

#ChooseJOY

I woke up excited to run!! I’ve never tapered properly until this race and I really missed running…a lot.

Temps were perfect for race day!

I bring my banana bread with me for destination races. It’s tried and true, and I enjoyed it in bed with a cappuccino.

Here’s the rest of my race prep. THANK YOU Fleet Feet for the throw away gloves!

Use code: JENCHOOSESJOY (all caps) at Cocogo.com to save 10% off your order!

Don’t forget the all important Body Glide!

We bought passes for the hospitality tent. A little pricey but so worth it. We stayed a block away from the tent.

It was a nice warm place to sit down and drink some water before the race. I didn’t get to enjoy their yummy breakfast spread.

But it gave my husband a nice spot to hang out with TVs to watch the race.

The crowds were crazy walking to my corral but I found my 3:50 pacers and we started at 7:36.
It felt like we were running in slow motion. In hindsight I was probably a little too conservative, but I desperately wanted to have a negative split and finish strong.
As promised, the course was flat and the spectators were incredible.
I started my garmin and changed the screen to the clock view. It’s the first time I’ve run by feel. I trusted the pacers for the first half and picked up my pace around the mile 13. I didn’t look at my watch until mile 25.

Splits:
8:40, 8:26, 8:57, 8:28, 8:37, 8:35, 8:30, 8:58, 8:51, 8:50, 8:20, 8:31, 8:11, 8:30, 8:27, 8:25, 8:20, 8:23, 8:11, 8:21, 8:20, 8:08, 8:03, 8:08, 7:52, 7:42

Gu 15 mins before race, 1 hr, 2hr, 20 mile marker.
This was the most fun I’ve ever had running a road marathon! Can you tell? 🙂

1st Half: 8:45

2nd Half: 8:15

After meeting up at the hospitality tent after the race, I came back to the room, took an ice bath and shower and I ate pretzels in bed. Guess I needed salt.