Banana Coffee Cake With Chocolate Chip Streusel

There on the kitchen table was a sorry sight: blackened, droopy bananas. What a waste. I will only eat bananas when the creases are still green and I can't locate any black spots.

What could I make? Banana bread? That would be the obvious solution if only I weren't completely out of vanilla. I needed a recipe for something like banana bread (to satisfy the craving that idea just gave me) that didn't involve vanilla.

Epicurious came to the rescue yet again. Once I saw the recipe for banana coffee cake with chocolate chip streusel, I knew I would be making it. I always add chocolate chips to my banana bread and coat the top heavily with a brown sugar streusel. This was right up my alley.

Recipe from Epicurious (Bon Appetit, Jan 2003)
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 8 ounces)
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 tablespoons buttermilk (I actually used heavy cream because that's all I had on hand)

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan. Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside. Sift all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, room temperature butter, and egg in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients and blend well.

Spread half of batter (about 2 cups) in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. (This was a small struggle. Dividing the batter in half, I barely had enough to cover the bottom of the pan, and then I barely had enough to cover the first layer of streusel. But I can't complain because the ratio of cake to streusel was perfect.) Bake coffee cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool coffee cake in pan on rack.

I ate a small corner piece of the cake while it was still warm and the chocolate chips still oozy and gooey. It wasn't banana bread; it was better.
The rest went to work with me the next day, where everyone agreed it wasn't fair to call this a coffee cake. It's as rich a cake as any. But as I don't shy away from eating chocolate cake for breakfast, I could definitely eat this cake any time of day too.