the bananas have ripened... but i'm a failure.

IT'S BANANA BREAD TIME! At last... I've been pretty excited to get started on these new recipes... too bad this one first one sucked.

Banana Bread w/ Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar from Orangette

3 ripe bananas
2 large eggs
1.5C unbleached AP flour (I switched over to see the difference, if any)
1C Gran. Sugar
1tsp Baking Soda (I ended up adding in baking powder*)
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1C Semisweet Chocolate Chips

Topping: 2tbsp gran sugar + 1/8tsp ground cinnamon

Mash bananas. Add eggs. Stir to combine
Add flour, sugar, baking soda*, cinnamon and vanilla.
Stir to mix.
Add 3/4C of chocolate chips.
Pour into prepared pan.
Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar and remaining chocolate chips.

I used a loaf pan, lined with parchment.** (Neato trick I learned from reading the Orangette blog- spray the pan with cooking spray, THEN line it. WHOA.)

Bake 375 degree oven for 35-40min. Do the toothpick test. Cool on wire rack.

What I Did/Did Not Do:
*After making the baking soda/powder switcheroo, I ran to look up if there was a way to salvage the mistake. You can! Sorta... so I simply added another tsp of baking powder. Next time, I'll do it 'right' and see if there's a difference.
**So the recipe uses a 8in sq pan. And... I don't have that. And... I have a round. AND... I don't know why this time I DIDN'T follow the directions as closely as possible. So, a round probably would have been better than a loaf for the temperature and cooking time. I didn't think of this until I did the toothpick test (naturally). So I ended up fiddling with the oven temp and baking time to see if I could salvage THIS baking fiasco. I baked for 20 more min at approx. 325 degrees. It worked out ok in the end...

Notes: (may just apply towards my own processes)
Crust came out nice, in my opinion. Crumbly and crusty with sugar and chocolate atop.
The bread is chewy... which isn't a bad thing. It is what the original recipe said it would be. SO I guess I can't be too disappointed.
Also, I think I'm going to get another sized loaf pan. This one bakes much like a BRICK. Not so charming to have a BRICK of bread or cake sometimes.

I don't know how much a fan I am of chocolate in banana bread. Its OKAY. But I could do without. That'll be my next one to try then. But I might have to divide the recipe and add chocolate to one half, cuz the boy INSISTS upon the chocolate chips.