I made Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread in my College Dorm and Here’s What Happened…

Chrissy Teigen; The Queen of Twitter, wife of “All of Me” singer, John Legend, and all around queen of the internet. In the fateful September of 2017, Chrissy  tweeted out, asking the LA region for bananas, and in return, she offered a signed cookbook, John’s underwear, (weird right?) and one of her signature makeup palettes (from her collaboration with the cosmetics company, Becca). At the time, Teigen did not disclose what the bananas were being used for, but it was later revealed that the bananas were needed for Teigen's original banana bread. She later released her recipe, and I took on the challenge in my college dorm kitchen.  

The recipe is pretty simple, mash up super extra ripe bananas, add eggs, and oil. The dry ingredient mix is as follows, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and the secret ingredient, vanilla pudding mix. Apparently, it keeps the bread really moist (we’ll see about that). Now, I’m obviously a college student living in a dorm, so I’ve got pretty limited space. I went out to the store today in preparation of my baking extravaganza, and purchased measuring cups, a mixing bowl, and a silicone bundt mold. I didn’t want to have 8,000 pounds of flour and sugar sitting around in my already cluttered room, so I purchased all of my ingredients in the bulk section. (The things I do for carbs...) 

I headed down to the building kitchen, of which 700 students, all aged 18-20, share. I whipped up the recipe and popped it in the oven for *what I planned to be* about an hour at 325 degreed fahrenheit, as per the recipe. In my oven, it took about 90 minutes, and after an hour I cranked the temperature up to 350 degrees fahrenheit. After distracting myself for an hour and a half, it was time to remove this masterpiece from the oven. Finally, after drooling over the smell, I was ready to indulge in this dense, rich, donut looking loaf of banana bread.

This Banana Bread is the Superior Banana Bread

Before I get to my review of the recipe, I want to go over why banana bread is so amazing, and so incredibly underrated. First of all, its delicious. Hands down delicious. Second, it can be a breakfast AND a dessert. Who wouldn’t think that’s the ideal situation? Lastly, and arguably the most obvious, there’s lots of bananas in it, so it has to be healthy! (...right?) 

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the taste test of Chrissy Teigen’s famous banana bread recipe.

This bread is amazing. By far the best banana bread I’ve ever had, let alone made. I slipped in some extra chocolate chips just because why not, but I’m sure it’d be equally as a great with the recommended amount. The vanilla pudding mix keeps the bread moist, and gives it a unique flavor. I’ve never thought to put coconut in my banana bread and now that I’ve tried it, I feel like I’ve been wasting my life waiting for this awakening. Also, I could not find super ripe bananas at the grocery store, and I’m not patient enough to wait days before the bananas were ready, so that made mixing the batter a little difficult, but I didn’t necessarily taste a difference. If you’re impatient like me but don’t want to sacrifice the quality of your banana bread, use these hacks from Spoon University to ripen your bananas quickly. Having this for breakfast? I’d recommend heating it up in a microwave or toaster oven, and topping with some butter before eating. If you want a little more adventure in your life and plan on enjoying this marvelous loaf for dessert, a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream would send this over the moon!

Overall, this recipe is a total win. I also managed to make it in a college dorm, so if you’ve got a kitchen at home, stop reading this and get to cookin’! I highly recommend this recipe to anyone who likes banana bread, people who don’t like banana bread, (because you will after tasting this), and fans like me, who straight up just love Chrissy Teigen. 

Chrissy Teigen's Banana Bread

• Prep Time:15 mins
• Cook Time:1 hr
• Total Time:1 hr 15 mins
• Servings:0
• Easy

Ingredients

• 6 very very ripe bananas
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3.4 ounce box vanilla pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 3.5 ounce bar dark chocolate chopped into chunks or equal amount chocolate chips
• Salted butter for serving

• Step 1

  Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit. In a large mixing bowl, mash up 6 super ripe bananas and add the eggs and canola oil. Mix to combine. In a separate bowl, combine flour, sugar, pudding mix, salt, and baking soda. Stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients into the wet, and mix just until combined. Do not over mix, or stir aggressively, as the final product may become a little tough. Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.

  

• Step 2

  Flour and grease a ***Bundt pan*** by wiping some oil inside the pan, and lightly dusting with flour, to prevent sticking. Pour batter into pan. (You can use two 8 x 4-inch pans, but the Bundt makes the cake more moist. And pretty!!) Bake the bread until you get some spring back action and a toothpick comes out clean after inserted, *roughly* 55-60 minutes. Cool slightly in the pan, and use a butter knife on the edges to help release the cake. Cool completely, cut into slices, and enjoy with a little butter on top.

  

***I used a silicone Bundt pan, and I found that it worked great when placed on a cookie sheet in the over. The batter is a bit too heavy to allow to bake on its own in the oven without the support of the cookie sheet. 

Side note: I used 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips which is certainly more than the recommended amount but I think it made it even better.