Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Peanut Butter Icing

I'm a sweet freak. I love cookies, cakes and pies. I love chocolate, peanut butter and frosting. I love... honestly, if it's sweet, I love it all. Three of my favorite things are chocolate, peanut butter and bananas. Each on their own are wonderful, but putting all three together is just amazing. That's why I was so excited when I came across this recipe from Michelle of food blog �A Latte Food� for Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Peanut Butter Icing. I make a mean banana bread and, usually, when it's fresh out of the oven I'll smear some peanut butter on a slice and munch it back. But peanut butter icing? That's just pure genius!

Peanut butter is a food paste made from ground dry roasted peanuts, sometimes containing added salt, seed oils, sugar and emulsifiers ('natural' peanut butter includes no extras beyond the peanuts and is a healthier alternative but differs greatly in texture and taste). Canadian Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, Quebec, was the first to patent peanut butter in 1884, although George Washington Carver is often mistakenly credited as the inventor due to his work in cultivating peanut crops and publicizing recipes. According to his patent application, Edson's peanut paste product had �a consistency like that of butter, lard, or ointment�. His idea was developed as a delicious and nutritious staple for people who couldn't chew on solid food. Today, there are many uses for peanut butter, including as an ingredient in recipes for cookies and candies. Its flavor combines well with other flavors, such as chocolate, oatmeal and various types of breads and crackers.

Another of the three main ingredients in chocolate chip banana bread with peanut butter icing are the chocolate chips. The origin of chocolate chips is quite fascinating. In 1937 Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts added cut up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestle chocolate bar to her cookie recipe, thus creating chocolate chip cookies. The cookies were a success and in 1939 Wakefield reached an agreement with Nestle: they added her recipe to their chocolate bar's packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate for Mrs. Wakefield (that kind of sounds like a dream come true, doesn't it?). Nestle included a small chopping tool with their chocolate bars initially, but in 1941 they started selling the chocolate in chip (or 'morsel') form.

I have to say that although I love the ooey gooey chocolate and the rich, moist banana bread, my absolute favorite part of this banana bread recipe is the peanut butter icing. I'm going to start putting this on everything! All you need is a little powdered sugar, vanilla extract, creamy peanut butter and one other not-so-secret ingredient. All you have to do is check out the recipe. To steal the words from one poster's comments, �I can't even handle all the goodness... you just totally upped the ante when it comes to banana bread!� This is exactly how I feel.