Banana Coffeecake with Chocolate Chip Streusel

 

I love a good coffeecake, and so when I wanted to use up some overripe bananas, I went looking for a banana coffeecake recipe.  This one , which is originally from Bon Appetit, and which I found on Epicurious, appealed to me.  After reading some of the reviews, which stated that the coffeecake was too sweet and that the streusel didn't hold together well, I made a number of

changes, so I am going to post it here as I prepared it.  

BANANA COFFEECAKE WITH CHOCOLATE CHIP STREUSEL

1 cup chocolate chips (6 oz.)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 Tblsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tblsp. canola oil

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
3 Tblsp. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º.  Spray a 9-inch square pan with baking spray.  In a small bowl, combine the chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon and oil; set this streusel mixture aside.

Place flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in sifter and set aside.  In large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and egg in large bowl and beat with electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat in mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Sift in dry ingredients and blend well.

Spread half of the batter in prepared pan.  Sprinkle with half of streusel.  Repeat with remaining batter and streusel.  Bake coffeecake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool in pan on rack.

Now for the review.  We thought this was delicious and a wonderful use for overripe bananas.  I would definitely make this again.  Next time, though, I plan to use the mini chocolate chips as I just like them better in a streusel topping.  And I will probably use less than 1 cup.  I added the oil to the topping to help it hold together and that did work well, but I think perhaps using 2 Tblsp of softened butter and maybe 1/4 cup of  flour would work even better.  To my mind, streusel toppings that contain no flour just don't work as well.  I would definitely use the whole 1 Tblsp. of cinnamon, though, as that added a wonderful flavor dimension.