As usual, when I have some overripe bananas, I choose to make banana bread. I hadn't made a chocolate one in a long time (I have made many different kinds of banana breads*), so I thought I'd try that. I found this recipe on the Baking with Dan blog, and I was ready to go!
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¾ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- ⅓ cup dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, about 2.5 medium bananas
- ½ cup plus 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chunks or chips
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8"x4" loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl add the flour, light brown sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In a blender or the bowl of your food processor, add the mashed bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla extract. Blend on high for 15 seconds to emulsify the liquid ingredients. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks and then pour the batter into the prepared pan. Top with more chocolate chunks if desired (I always do!) Bake in the center of your oven for 60-70 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Check earlier if using a larger loaf pan. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes and then remove and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Some of the steps in this recipe are a little much. Do you have to spray the pan AND use parchment paper? I did because Dan said to, but I think either one on its own would work fine. And I was not about to break out a blender or mixer to make banana bread. Just mix it by hand with a spatula! I don't think everything needs to be "emulsified" to make good banana bread (I like the bigger banana chunks!), and that extra step adds more items to clean anyway. I also blended the dry ingredients into the wet instead of the other way around, since that's how most baking recipes work.
I didn't have too many chocolate chips left in my pantry, so I just sprinkled everything I had on top, like a chocolate shell. Yum! I would definitely make this one again!
*Here are some blog posts of other banana breads I have made (determined by flavor or supplies):
