Have you ever had what could have been a kitchen disaster turn into one of your favorite foods ever?  This Mint Chocolate Chip Banana Bread is just that – a giant oops, that ended up tasting so good, I now make it on purpose.

Mint Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

The first time I made this, it was a complete accident.  Like many of you, when my bananas get overripe, I bake them into banana bread or my girls favorite, chockful of hidden veggies, toddler muffins.  I was making a batch of banana bread, reached into the cabinet for vanilla, pulled out a brown extract bottle, and before my mind registered the scent and questioned why the liquid was clear instead of brown, I had dumped peppermint extract into my batter.  I decided to go along with it, and since chocolate clearly goes so well with both bananas and mint, threw in a handful of mini-chocolate chips for good measure!  Let’s just say it turned out a whole lot better than the time my Mom was making banana bread at my house and the salt shaker plug fell out and dumped the whole shaker of salt in the batter.

It was so good, I pretty much horded it for myself and ate every last crumb.  Now, we make it on purpose – and since St. Patrick’s Day is approaching, and mint chocolate chip is synonymous with green, we added a little green food coloring too for festiveness.

Ingredients:

5 1/3 TBSP unsalted butter
2/3 C sugar

1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

4-5 drops green food coloring (optional)
1 cup mashed, ripe bananas (2-3)
1/2 cup mini chocolate morsels

Directions:

Position a rack in lower third of the oven.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together room temperature butter with sugar.  Beat in dry ingredients until blended (will appear the consistency of brown sugar).  Gradually beat in the 2 eggs and peppermint extract.  Fold in lightly the mashed bananas, chocolate morsels, and green food coloring (optional).

Scrape batter into a greased loaf pan.  Bake 50 minutes.  Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing from pan.

Big M is all about cooking in the kitchen these days, so she pulled up a chair and took the lead.  She really enjoyed mashing the bananas, smelling the peppermint extract and of course, had to sample a few chocolate chips!

It smells great while it’s baking too!  The girls were eager to try it, and it made the perfect dessert after dinner tonight.

I can assure you, not all my kitchen accidents turn out this well.  I can usually salvage just about anything, but this one is definitely one of our favorites.  What has been your favorite kitchen accident?  Did you taste it?  Make it again? If you enjoyed this recipe, be sure to check out our Caramel Pecan Apple Cupcakes and 3-Ingredient Charlie Brown Cookies! You can find all our sweet treats, along with our favorites from around the web on our Gotta Eat! – Desserts board on Pinterest.