Banana Bread and Banana Bread Bites

When my sister came to town a couple of weeks ago she brought with her about 3 lbs of overripe bananas knowing I could (and would) turn them into something yummy. Naturally we chose banana bread. This is a recipe from my mother-in-law that I've adapted over the past several years to my own taste and, in my opinion at least, it is hands-down the best banana bread ever!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup NF dry milk powder (If you like it sweeter, omit milk and use 3/4 cup sugar instead)
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 medium mashed bananas
1/2 cup LF plain yogurt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add bananas, yogurt, eggs and dry milk and blend well. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt and stir into banana mixture until moistened. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake for 60 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in the pan; remove and cool completely.

Of course having 3 lbs of bananas allowed me to do a double double batch of this recipe. Nobody complained about having so much banana bread around, but to make things interesting I turned 2 loaves worth of the mix into some yummy Banana Bread Bites by using my mini-muffin tins.

Banana Bread Bites

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Grease 1 mini muffin tin (should make at least 24 mini muffins). Use the above recipe for mixture. Add about 1 teaspoonful mixture into each mini muffin cup filling it about 2/3 full. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before removing from pan or they will fall apart!