Chocolatey Banana Bread

This banana bread is basically a chocolate cake, and for that reason you will love this recipe (and me) forever.

This recipe makes two lovely loaves, and takes care of those spotty old bananas on your counter.  And it hits that craving for a dense, rich cake right in the banana bullseye.

Bonus moment:  if you do what I say and sprinkle the chocolate chunks or chips along the center of the bread before baking it, it will settle nicely into the loaf as it bakes and create a staggering chocolate surprise.

(Oh.  Lookie here if you want to see what not to do when making this recipe, okay?  Because I always strive to make mistakes first, so you don’t have to.)

Adapted from Crunchy Creamy Sweet’s recipe…

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and room temperature

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup chocolate chips/ chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease two loaf pans.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl, mix both sugars and butter until just combined.  Stir in eggs, mashed bananas, vanilla and milk.
4. Gently mix in dry ingredients, being careful not to over mix.
5. Divide batter among prepared pans and sprinkle chocolate chips/ chunks along the center of each loaf.
6. Bake 50-55 minutes, or until a cake tester (inserted near the center but out of the way of the chocolate chips in the middle, of course) comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 20 minutes in pan before removing to finish cooling.

Tips:

• The bananas MUST be very ripe.  Please never compromise on this important point!  Lots of spots.  The blacker the better.
• The chocolate can be stirred into the batter if you really want.  I like the stripe of chocolateness down the middle, but by all means- go the traditional route.  I used semi-sweet because I had a big block of it waiting to be chopped up into something meaningful.
• Want to get crazy?  Add blobs of peanut butter into the batter after you pour into the loaf pans.  Swirl with a sharp knife to barely distribute the peanutty goodness.  Or, add 3/4 cup of your favorite toasted nut into the batter.
• Make sure you allow the bread to cool in the pans before removing, and don’t try to make mini muffins with this recipe, as I explain here.

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