Banana bread with chocolate chips and walnuts

Well, two very ripe bananas can only mean one thing: baked banana products! For variety's sake, I wanted to find a new recipe using bananas and came across this one on Epicurious. Chocolate chips and walnuts? I'm in!

Recipe

from Epicurious.com1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour1 tsp baking soda1 tsp baking powder1/4 tsp salt3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips3/4 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp1 cup sugar2 eggs1 cup mashed ripe bananas2 tbsp lemon juice1-1/2 tsp vanilla extractPreheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 9 x 5 x 2-1/2 in loaf pan. Whisk first 4 ingredients together in medium bowl. Combine chocolate chips and walnuts in a small bowl; add 1 tbsp flour mixture and toss to coat. Beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, and beat until well-blended. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat in flour mixture. Spoon 1/3 batter into pan, then sprinkle half nut mixture. Spoon 1/3 batter over, and sprinkle remaining nut mixture. Cover with remaining batter. Run knife through batter in zigzag pattern. Bake bread until tester inserted comes out clean, about an hour.

Musings

A few notes on preparation: Since I don't have a large loaf pan, I divided the mixture into two smaller pans. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of filling the loaf pans full, and they subsequently overflowed a bit and were flat-topped (instead of nicely-rounded). I also didn't toast the walnuts (didn't notice that point until I was re-reading the recipe).Despite its misshapen form, the bread was quite tasty. I liked the sweetness of the chocolate and the crunchiness of the walnuts, and of course, the flavour of the bananas. It ended up being quite moist, despite it being quite brown on the top. I'll have to invest in a larger loaf pan and try it again, to see if I can work out the aesthetic kinks.