ripe-bananas

Everyone who buys bananas often finds themselves with the rather common scenario of  having a bunch of overripe (read: brown and mushy) bananas on their countertop. Such a situation usually results in the bananas getting stored away in the freezer to be used at a later date, or put immediately into a bowl to be mashed up and turned into banana bread. Now, of course, as a chocoholic, whenever I make banana bread, I always add chocolate chips to it, but I know there are folks out there that like boy banana bread (with nuts) or just plain girl banana bread (no nuts).

While banana bread is lovely, of course, I was curious as to what other baked goods required banana mush, which would be optimal to make when one has an overflow of overripe bananas. After some Googling, I found this great looking recipe at Taste of Home, called Black-Bottom Banana Bars. The recipe uses most of the same ingredients one would use for banana bread, except with the addition of a 1/4 cup of baking cocoa. Although they don’t call for it in this recipe, I would also add chocolate chips to the mix, just to up the chocoholic factor of course! To make this recipe, you will need around three medium sized overripe bananas.

banana-bread-with-chocolate-chips

I’ve made black bottom cupcakes before, and though it is a funny way to word it, the term refers to baked goods that have chocolate on the bottom, so it’s definitely a phrase that chocoholics should familiarize themselves with!

Black-Bottom Banana Bars recipe at Taste of Home.